An efficient and direct method of catalytic conversion of methane to liquid methanol and other oxygenates would be of considerable practical value. However, it remains an unsolved problem in catalysis, as typically it involves expensive or corrosive oxidants or reaction media that are not amenable to commercialization. Although methane can be directly converted to methanol using molecular oxygen under mild conditions in the gas phase, the process is either stoichiometric (and therefore requires a water extraction step) or is too slow and low-yielding to be practical. Methane could, in principle, also be transformed through direct oxidative carbonylation to acetic acid, which is commercially obtained through methane steam reforming, methanol synthesis, and subsequent methanol carbonylation on homogeneous catalysts. However, an effective catalyst for the direct carbonylation of methane to acetic acid, which might enable the economical small-scale utilization of natural gas that is currently flared or stranded, has not yet been reported. Here we show that mononuclear rhodium species, anchored on a zeolite or titanium dioxide support suspended in aqueous solution, catalyse the direct conversion of methane to methanol and acetic acid, using oxygen and carbon monoxide under mild conditions. We find that the two products form through independent pathways, which allows us to tune the conversion: three-hour-long batch-reactor tests conducted at 150 degrees Celsius, using either the zeolite-supported or the titanium-dioxide-supported catalyst, yield around 22,000 micromoles of acetic acid per gram of catalyst, or around 230 micromoles of methanol per gram of catalyst, respectively, with selectivities of 60-100 per cent. We anticipate that these unusually high activities, despite still being too low for commercial application, may guide the development of optimized catalysts and practical processes for the direct conversion of methane to methanol, acetic acid and other useful chemicals.

The use of various functionalized polymers as stabilizers to design metal core-organic shell hybrid nanoparticle architectures has attracted increasing interest for different applications. The feature article reviews recent reports published from 2004 to the beginning of 2007 on the synthesis of polymer protected gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and also comments their properties and applications.

This work focuses on the synthesis method of Au nanoparticles protected by a well-defined polymer monolayer. Nanosized, spherical gold clusters coated with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPA) grafts were prepared by controlled radical polymerization. The polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide was initiated from the surface of a gold nanoparticle modified with 4-cyanopentanoic acid dithiobenzoate for a reversible-addition-fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization. The number mean diameter of the Au core was 3.2 nm as observed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The molar mass of the PNIPA ligand was 21000 g/mol by gel permeation chromatography. The changes in the surface plasmon of gold were investigated in different media, and as functions of particle concentration, as well as of temperature in aqueous solutions. The particles were soluble at least slightly in water, forming aggregates. The area and the maximum wavelength of the plasmon band in water decreased with dilution and increasing temperature. During the collapse of PNIPA ligands the surroundings of the gold surface change from hydrophilic to hydrophobic.

It is shown that the SidSi dimers of the reconstructed Si(001) surface can react with the π bonds of unsaturated organic molecules to produce well-defined organic films with novel physical properties. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies show that the resulting layers are ordered both translationally and rotationally, with the SidSi dimers acting as a template for extending the translational and rotational order from the silicon substrate to the organic film. STM images and infrared spectroscopy experiments show that by using vicinal Si(001) surface having primarily double-height steps, the rotational order of the molecules can be preserved over macroscopic length scales, leading to measurable anisotropy in optical properties. It is proposed that this chemistry may provide a general method for formation of controlled organic films on Si(001) surfaces.

The thermally induced phase transition of the poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) brush covalently bound to the surface of the gold nanoparticles was studied using high-sensitivity microcalorimetry. Two types of PNIPAM monolayer protected clusters (MPCs) of gold nanoparticles were employed, denoted as the cumyl- and the cpa-PNIPAM MPCs, bearing either a phenylpropyl end group or a carboxyl end group on each PNIPAM chain, respectively. The PNIPAM chains of both MPCs exhibit two separate transition endotherms; i.e., the first transition with a sharp and narrow endothermic peak occurs at lower temperature, while the second one with a broader peak occurs at higher temperature. With increase of the MPC concentration, the transition temperature corresponding to the first peak only slightly changes but the second transition temperature strongly shifts to lower temperature. The calorimetric enthalpy change in the first transition is much smaller than that in the second transition. The ratio of the calorimetric enthalpy change to the van't Hoff enthalpy change indicates that in the first transition PNIPAM segments show much higher cooperativity than in the second one. The investigation of pH dependence of two-phase transitions further indicates the PNIPAM brush reveals two separate transitions even with a change in interchain/interparticle association. The observations are tentatively rationalized by assuming that the PNIPAM brush can be subdivided into two zones, the inner zone and the outer zone. In the inner zone, the PNIPAM segments are close to the gold surface, densely packed, less hydrated, and undergo the first transition. In the outer zone, on the other hand, the PNIPAM segments are looser and more hydrated, adopt a restricted random coil conformation, and show a phase transition, which is dependent on both concentration of MPC and the chemical nature of the end groups of the PNIPAM chains. Aggregation of the particles, which may also affect the phase transition, is briefly discussed.

A catalytic site typically consists of one or more atoms of a catalyst surface that arrange into a configuration offering a specific electronic structure for adsorbing or dissociating reactant molecules. The catalytic activity of adjacent bimetallic sites of metallic nanoparticles has been studied previously. An isolated bimetallic site supported on a non-metallic surface could exhibit a distinctly different catalytic performance owing to the cationic state of the singly dispersed bimetallic site and the minimized choices of binding configurations of a reactant molecule compared with continuously packed bimetallic sites. Here we report that isolated Rh 1 Co 3 bimetallic sites exhibit a distinctly different catalytic performance in reduction of nitric oxide with carbon monoxide at low temperature, resulting from strong adsorption of two nitric oxide molecules and a nitrous oxide intermediate on Rh 1 Co 3 sites and following a low-barrier pathway dissociation to dinitrogen and an oxygen atom. This observation suggests a method to develop catalysts with high selectivity.

It is crucial to develop a catalyst made of earth-abundant elements highly active for a complete oxidation of methane at a relatively low temperature. NiCo 2 O 4 consisting of earth-abundant elements which can completely oxidize methane in the temperature range of 350-550°C. Being a cost-effective catalyst, NiCo 2 O 4 exhibits activity higher than precious-metal-based catalysts. Here we report that the higher catalytic activity at the relatively low temperature results from the integration of nickel cations, cobalt cations and surface lattice oxygen atoms/oxygen vacancies at the atomic scale. In situ studies of complete oxidation of methane on NiCo 2 O 4 and theoretical simulations show that methane dissociates to methyl on nickel cations and then couple with surface lattice oxygen atoms to form -CH 3 O with a following dehydrogenation to À CH 2 O; a following oxidative dehydrogenation forms CHO; CHO is transformed to product molecules through two different sub-pathways including dehydrogenation of OCHO and CO oxidation.

The preparation of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide)-monolayer-protected clusters (PNIPAM-MPC) of gold nanoparticles was carried out in a homogeneous phase using three methods, in which three types of PNIPAM ligands were employed. The first type was comprised of PNIPAMs with narrow molar mass distributions, synthesized by reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization and thus bearing a dithiobenzoate at the chain end. These polymers were used directly to passivate the gold nanoparticles upon the Schiffrin reaction in a one-pot synthesis. The second type of ligand was derived from the first one through hydrazinolysis, and they therefore contained a thiol end group. The third type of ligand was PNIPAMs obtained through conventional radical polymerization, postmodified to contain thiol end groups. The PNIPAM-MPCs were characterized by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering. The one-pot synthesis utilizing the ligands of the first type turned out to be a simple and facile method compared with the other two ways, with which the size of the gold nanoparticles can be easily manipulated mainly by adjusting the molar ratios of PNIPAM/HAuCl 4. PNIPAM is a more efficient ligand to stabilize the gold nanoparticles in water and in organic solvents than alkanethiols. The surface density of PNIPAM chains ranged from 1.8 to 2.5 chain/nm 2 , which is much lower than that typical for alkanethiols. The thickness of a PNIPAM monolayer bound to the gold core is somewhat larger than the size of the random coil of the corresponding free PNIPAM in aqueous solution, which suggests that the conformation of a PNIPAM chain bound to the gold core is extended.