The mechanochemical synthesis of nanomaterials for catalytic applications is a growing research field due to its simplicity, scalability, and eco‐friendliness. Besides, it provides materials with distinct features, such as nanocrystallinity, high defect concentration, and close interaction of the components in a system, which are, in most cases, unattainable by conventional routes. Consequently, this research field has recently become highly popular, particularly for the preparation of catalytic materials for various applications, ranging from chemical production over energy conversion catalysis to environmental protection. In this Review, recent studies on mechanochemistry for the synthesis of catalytic materials are discussed. Emphasis is placed on the straightforwardness of the mechanochemical route—in contrast to more conventional synthesis—in fabricating the materials, which otherwise often require harsh conditions. Distinct material properties achieved by mechanochemistry are related to their improved catalytic performance.

Supported catalysts are among the most important classes of catalysts.T hey are typically prepared by wetchemical methods,s uch as impregnation or co-precipitation. Here we disclose that dry ball milling of macroscopic metal powder in the presence of asupport oxide leads in many cases to supported catalysts with particles in the nanometer size range.V arious supports,i ncluding TiO 2 ,A l 2 O 3 ,F e 2 O 3 ,a nd Co 3 O 4 ,a nd different metals,s uch as Au,P t, Ag,C u, and Ni, were studied, and for eacho ft he supports and the metals, highly dispersed nanoparticles on supports could be prepared. The supported catalysts were tested in CO oxidation, where they showed activities in the same range as conventionally prepared catalysts.T he method thus provides as imple and cost-effective alternative to the conventionally used impregnation methods.

In a previous publication, ball milling was introduced as an effective method for the preparation of supported metal catalysts, simply from the coarse powders of the metal and metal oxide support. In this follow-up study, we demonstrate that mixing multiple metal sources can result in supported alloyed nanoparticles, extending the field of application of the method to the synthesis of supported bimetallic catalysts. Ball milling Au and Pd or Au and Cu in a high-energy regime (shaker mill) indeed led to the formation of Au−Pd and Au−Cu nanoparticles, supported on MgO or yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ), which were explored as model systems. Powder X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy were the primary means to investigate as-synthesized materials. The catalytic performance in CO oxidation was also investigated to understand better how the synthetic method could affect the features of the final materials as catalysts.

Single-crystal-to-single-crystal post-synthetic modifications of {[Ln2(H2L)3(DMF)4]·2DMF}n LOFs (Ln = Gd, Eu) to modulate their luminescence and thermometric properties.