RESUMEN
The selective hydrogenation of acetylene catalyzed by Pd nanoparticles is industrially used to increase the purity of ethylene. Despite the implementation of Pd based catalysts on an industrial scale, little is known about metal-support interactions on a fundamental level due to the complexity of these systems. In this study, the influence of metal-support interactions between Pd nanoparticles and two electronically modified a-SiO2 thin films on acetylene hydrogenation is investigated under ultra-high vacuum (UHV) conditions. The hydrogenation is performed under isothermal reaction conditions using a pulsed molecular beam reactive scattering (pMBRS) technique. Besides the activity and selectivity of clean Pd particles also the impact of dehydrogenated species intentionally introduced a priori is elucidated, whereas the active phase of the catalyst is additionally characterized by CO infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS) and post-mortem temperature-programmed reaction (TPR). Metal-support interactions are found to influence the catalytic properties of Pd particles by charge-transfer, where positive charging leads to increased activity for acetylene hydrogenation. However, the increased activity is accompanied by formation of undesired byproducts. The active sites for acetylene and ethylene hydrogenation are shown to be different as previously proposed by the A and E model. The availability of the two different active sites on the Pd nanoparticles is determined by dehydrogenated species, whose nature and stability can be tuned by metal-support interactions. Based on these findings an electronic model is proposed how selectivity for acetylene hydrogenation can be steered solely by metal-support interactions leading to blocking of unselective sites in situ.
RESUMEN
The hydrogenation of ethylene and acetylene was studied on a Pdn/MgO/Mo(100) model system containing palladium particles with a narrow size distribution around Pd26 (Pd20 to Pd35). Reactivity measurements were carried out in an ultrahigh vacuum chamber under isothermal conditions in the presence of deuterium. The catalyst system can readily hydrogenate both of these small molecules, and for acetylene, an alternative reaction network exists, in which it is trimerized to benzene. Distinct deactivation behavior was found for the two molecules and ascribed to different adsorption sites formed and influenced by the carbonaceous overlayer formed during the course of the reaction. These findings extend the A-E-model by Borodzinski and Golȩbiowski to extremely small particles and low partial pressures and show that it is possible to study realistic catalytic sites under highly defined conditions.
RESUMEN
Ethylene hydrogenation was investigated on size-selected Pt13 clusters supported on three amorphous silica (a-SiO2 ) thin films with different stoichiometries. Activity measurements of the reaction at 300â K revealed that on a silicon-rich and a stoichiometric film, Pt13 exhibits a similar activity to that of Pt(111), in line with the known structure insensitivity of the reaction. On an oxygen-rich film, a threefold increased rate was measured. Pulsing ethylene at 400â K, then measuring the activity at 300â K, resulted in complete loss of activity on the silicon-rich surface compared to only marginal losses on the other surfaces. The measured reactivity trends correlate with charging characteristics of a Pt13 cluster on the SiO2 films, predicted through first-principle calculations. The results reveal that the stoichiometry-dependent charging by the support can be used to tune the selectivity of reaction pathways during a catalytic hydrogenation reaction.
RESUMEN
Employing rationally designed model systems with precise atom-by-atom particle size control, we demonstrate by means of combining noninvasive in situ indirect nanoplasmonic sensing and ex situ scanning transmission electron microscopy that monomodal size-selected platinum cluster catalysts on different supports exhibit remarkable intrinsic sintering resistance even under reaction conditions. The observed stability is related to suppression of Ostwald ripening by elimination of its main driving force via size-selection. This study thus constitutes a general blueprint for the rational design of sintering resistant catalyst systems and for efficient experimental strategies to determine sintering mechanisms. Moreover, this is the first systematic experimental investigation of sintering processes in nanoparticle systems with an initially perfectly monomodal size distribution under ambient conditions.
RESUMEN
The sensitivity, or insensitivity, of catalysed reactions to catalyst structure is a commonly employed fundamental concept. Here we report on the nature of nano-catalysed ethylene hydrogenation, investigated through experiments on size-selected Ptn (n=8-15) clusters soft-landed on magnesia and first-principles simulations, yielding benchmark information about the validity of structure sensitivity/insensitivity at the bottom of the catalyst size range. Both ethylene-hydrogenation-to-ethane and the parallel hydrogenation-dehydrogenation ethylidyne-producing route are considered, uncovering that at the <1 nm size-scale the reaction exhibits characteristics consistent with structure sensitivity, in contrast to structure insensitivity found for larger particles. The onset of catalysed hydrogenation occurs for Ptn (n ≥ 10) clusters at T>150 K, with maximum room temperature reactivity observed for Pt13. Structure insensitivity, inherent for specific cluster sizes, is induced in the more active Pt13 by a temperature increase up to 400 K leading to ethylidyne formation. Control of sub-nanometre particle size may be used for tuning catalysed hydrogenation activity and selectivity.