Progress through synergistic effects of heterojunction in nanocatalysts ‐ Review

Abstract

There are major advances in the development of the nanostructured materials to enhance the reaction performance in catalytic field. Recent efforts have shown that high conversion efficiency and stability of efficient nanocatalysts can be achieved by combining the intrinsic properties of single components into heterostructures. The unprecedented combination affords the integrated nanocatalysts capable of overcoming the limitations of single components and addressing the issues of the assessment of the efficiency of the catalytic converters. The present review gives a concise overview of the heterostructured nanoarchitectures with a focus of the tailoring of their structural geometry, self‐construction and surface chemistry to effectively create integrated catalysts with multi‐functionalities. The novel integrated catalysts present in the critical review were emphasized these concepts by undergoing inherent synergistic effects in their heterojunction structures to emerge superior catalytic performance and high selectivity for promising applications. Various types of the integrated nanocatalysts including coupled particles, porous composites, organized hybrids, assembled films, and biomimetic replicas are presented in respect to the discussion of expressive statements for widespread emerging applications in artificial photosynthesis, graphene‐based catalysts, electrochemical gas sensing, water‐gas shift reaction, and methane fuel generation.

Classical Concept of Semiconductor Heterojunctions in the Approach to Nanohybrid Catalysts

“…2 The interaction of different materials in complex nanostructures is usually interpreted as a "synergistic effect", which includes changes in active phase dispersion, surface properties, electronic structure, etc., thus everything that could favorably influence the observed catalytic properties. 3,4 Unfortunately, a thorough understanding of the interaction of different materials in nanohybrid structures and the mechanisms of catalytic reactions involving such structures is still lacking. Some light on the aforementioned problem could be shed by the concept of generating space charges as a result of the formation of heterojunctions between nano-objects, of which the sizes are comparable to the sizes of the emerging space charge regions.…”

“…The interaction of different materials in complex nanostructures is usually interpreted as a “synergistic effect”, which includes changes in active phase dispersion, surface properties, electronic structure, etc., thus everything that could favorably influence the observed catalytic properties. , Unfortunately, a thorough understanding of the interaction of different materials in nanohybrid structures and the mechanisms of catalytic reactions involving such structures is still lacking.…”