Nanostructured Catalysts for Selective Hydrogenation and Hydrochlorination : Where does Gold Stand ?

Gold catalysis is a flourishing research area with prospects for industrial application.1 The foremost technical barrier for the commercialization of gold-based technologies is typically the limited durability of the supported (sub)-nanometer sized Au particles, which undergo agglomeration under reaction conditions, especially at high temperatures and pressures.2 On the other hand, the choice of carrier and synthesis method was shown to be the key to stability and to direct the catalytic properties of Au nanoparticles for specific reactions, as evidenced by either volcano-type or linear correlations with the average particle size. The establishment of these structure-performance relationships, critical to rational catalyst design, has been enabled by the recent advances in material synthesis and characterization techniques, expanding the research domain from gold nanoparticles to clusters, and ultimately to isolated atoms.3 The latter has been studied on zeolites and metal oxides which possess O-linkages supporting metal coordination. However, the stabilization of Au single atoms on carbonbased materials still remains a challenge today.4,5 In this respect, doping of the carbon carrier with pblock elements could provide suitable sites to entrap single metal atoms and to tailor their nature for targeted applications.