Designing new catalysts: synthesis of new active structures: general discussion.

Philip Davies opened the discussion of the introductory lecture by Avelino Corma: Themetal nanoparticles inside the zeolites are in a different environment from those outside. Is there any difference in their chemistry and their catalytic behaviour? Avelino Corma answered: We were not able to determine the differences in reactivity, other than the accessibility of reactants with different sizes. It should be said that we did not use molecules specifically suited for showing potential electronic–entropic differences. I agree that this is an important point to be considered. What we clearly observed is that the clusters inside the channels were stable towards sintering. Cynthia Friend asked: Have you considered the possible effect of ligands bound to your clusters? Have van der Waals’ interactions been explicitly included? Avelino Corma replied: The theoretical calculation of the interactions of nitrobenzene with the nanoparticles includes the interactions with the support and van der Waals’ interactions. In the case of clusters, H2 dissociation has been carried out on isolated Pt, Au and Au-Pt clusters and van der Waals’ interactions were not considered. Graham Hutchings continued: You rightly point out in your design strategy that the adsorption of the reactant is the key factor, and that adsorption occurs.