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Inorganic nanomaterials including gold nanoparticles, mesoporous silica nanoparticles, graphene, magnetic nanoparticles, quantum dots and layered double hydroxides have become one of the most active research fields in biochemistry, biotechnology and biomedicine. Benefiting from the facile synthesis/modification, intrinsically physicochemical properties and good biocompatibility, inorganic nanomaterials have shown great potential in bioimaging, targeted drug delivery and cancer therapies. This Feature Article summarizes recent progress on various inorganic nanocarriers, including the background, synthesis, modification, cytotoxicity, physicochemical properties as well as their applications in biomedicine.

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to study the nucleation and growth mechanism of Ru clusters on the TiO 2 (101) surface by using supported Ru n (n = 1−10, 20, 22) cluster models to understand the metal−support interaction and the resulting catalytic performance toward CO oxidation. The results show that the Ru n cluster prefers a 3D geometry when n ≥ 4 and that the Ru−TiO 2 interface is predominantly composed of Ru−O and Ti−O bonds. Calculation studies based on the density of states (DOS), Hirshfeld charge analysis, and electron deformation density (EDD) demonstrate that the electronic interaction is mainly localized at the Ru−TiO 2 interface through the electron transfer via the Ru−O bond. Additionally, the investigation on catalytic behavior of Ru n /TiO 2 toward CO oxidation reveals the largely enhanced catalytic activity of the supported Ru n clusters, which originates from the significant reduction of the activation barrier as a result of the electron transfer from Ru to TiO 2 .

The chemoselective hydrogenation of alkyne is of great importance in the chemical industry, in which intermetallic compounds (IMCs) have attracted extensive interest as efficient catalysts. Herein, we demonstrate the preparation of several supported Ni–Ga IMCs (Ni3Ga, Ni5Ga3, and NiGa) via a facile in situ reduction of layered double hydroxide (LDH) precursors, which demonstrate significantly improved catalytic activity and selectivity for the selective hydrogenation of phenylacetylene to styrene. The composition and particle size of Ni–Ga IMCs can be tuned by adjusting the Ni/Ga ratio or reduction temperature during the topotactic transformation process of LDHs, and the best catalytic behavior can be obtained over the Ni3Ga IMC with a styrene yield of 87.7 % (particle size=7.2 nm at 40 °C and 0.3 MPa), which is better than that of most of the reported Ni catalysts. The X‐ray absorption fine‐structure characterization and DFT calculations reveal the electron transfer from Ga to Ni and active‐site isolation by Ga in Ni–Ga IMCs, which account for the excellent hydrogenation selectivity. The significantly improved catalytic performance makes Ni–Ga IMC catalysts promising candidates for the selective hydrogenation of alkyne.

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