Polymer‐Assisted Co‐Assembly towards Synthesis of Mesoporous Titania Encapsulated Monodisperse PdAu for Highly Selective Hydrogenation of Phenylacetylene

Abstract

Bimetallic nanoalloys have attracted great research interest in the past decades by virtue of their tunable metal‐metal synergies. The preparation of well‐defined bimetallic nanoalloys largely relies on the use of capping ligands, which brings a great challenge to utilize the surface‐accessible active sites and/or tailor bimetallic‐support interactions. In the current paper, surface‐clean, thermally stable and monodisperse PdAu nanoalloys confined in mesoporous TiO2 (PdAu@mTiO2) were prepared using evaporation‐induced self‐assembly with two colloidal templates. The hydrogenation activity of PdAu@mTiO2 was demonstrated to be approximately 6 times higher than that of PdAu nanoalloys supported on mesoporous silica due to the bimetallic‐support interactions. Our method is expected to open up new opportunities to synthesize ligand‐free and stable bimetallic nanoalloys with tailored bimetallic‐support interactions for highly efficient catalysis.

Supported Pt Nanoparticles on Mesoporous Titania for Selective Hydrogenation of Phenylacetylene

“…The CDCl 3 was purchased from Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc. All the chemicals were used without further purification unless otherwise noted. Silane-containing block copolymers of poly(ethylene oxide)- block -poly(3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate) (PEO- b -PTMSPMA, M n = 56.9 kg mol −1 ) was prepared through atom transfer radical polymerization (ATPR) method as described in our previous reports (Tauster et al, 1978 ; Wang et al, 2015 ; Zhang et al, 2015 ; Feng et al, 2017 ; Hu et al, 2020 ). The polymer micelles were prepared in water/ethanol mixtures and dialyzed in ethanol prior to use.…”

Templated synthesis of crystalline mesoporous CeO2 with organosilane-containing polymers: balancing porosity, crystallinity and catalytic activity

“…On the other hand, our group has developed the use of hybrid polymer templates to overcome the poor thermal stability of organic polymers. The method is simply based on the design of organosilanecontaining block copolymers (BCPs), poly(ethylene oxide)block-poly [3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl methacrylate] (PEO-b-PTMSPMA) [44][45][46][47][48][49][50]. The PTMSPMA block consists of trimethoxysilyl moieties that can hydrolyze to form polysilsesquioxane and further thermally convert to inorganic silica-like structures [51,52].…”

Structural Engineering in the Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Block Copolymers with Reactive Additives: Micelles, Vesicles, and Beyond

“…Amphiphilic BCPs containing a reactive block such as poly­[3-(trimethoxysilyl)­propyl methacrylate] (PTMSPMA) have very promising applications to design hybrid polymer nanostructures. − Upon assembly, the hydrolysis of trimethoxysilyl moieties can lead to the formation of silica-like polysilsesquioxane structures with Si–O–Si bonds. Our group has demonstrated the use of amphiphilic BCPs, PEO- b -PTMSPMA, to synthesize crystalline mesoporous metal oxides. − These BCPs as soft templates allow the crystallization of complex oxides up to 1000 °C because of the remarkable stability of these hybrid polymers after the conversion to inorganic silica. However, given their reactivity with moisture, the control over the nanostructures of PTMSPMA-containing BCPs is more difficult to handle compared to conventional BCPs, including the size control of those polymer micelles.…”