Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Catalysis

The complexity of intimacy

Nature volume 528, pages 197–198 (2015)Cite this article

Subjects

Catalysts that contain two types of active site split long hydrocarbon molecules into more-useful shorter ones. Research into controlling the nanoscale separation of the sites challenges accepted design rules for such catalysts. See Letter p.245

Previous studies of the intimacy criterion have examined inter-site distances only at or above the micrometre scale. Zečević et al. now report two catalysts in which platinum was controllably placed at nanometre-scale distances from the acid sites. The catalysts contain platinum particles of around 3 nanometres in diameter, with a narrow particle-size distribution, so that the metal was selectively supported on either the zeolite or the binder (γ-alumina); the overall platinum content in the two catalysts was comparable, and less than 1% by weight. Key to this nanoscale control is the use of specific interactions between the noble metal's precursor and its support. One of the authors' major achievements was to use advanced electron-microscopy techniques to prove that the composite catalysts had identical structural parameters, except for the location of the platinum sites.

This is a preview of subscription content

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Figure 1
Figure 2: Spacing of active sites in hydrocracking catalysts.

Notes

  1. See all news & views

References

  1. van Veen, J. A. R., Minderhoud, J. K., Huve, L. G. & Stork, W. H. J. in Handbook of Heterogeneous Catalysis Vol. 6 (eds Ertl, G., Knözinger, H., Weitkamp, J. & Schüth, F.) 2778–2808 (Wiley-VCH, 2008).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Zečević, J. et al. Nature 528, 245–248 (2015).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Weisz, P. B. Adv. Catal. 13, 137–190 (1962).

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Martens, J. A. et al. Angew. Chem. Int. Edn 34, 2528–2530 (1995).

    CAS  Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Garcia-Martinez, J. & Li, K. (eds) Mesoporous Zeolites (Wiley-VCH, 2015).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  6. Kärger, J., Ruthven, D. M. & Theodorou, D. N. Diffusion in Nanoporous Materials Vol. 2, 807–837 (Wiley-VCH, 2012).

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Roger Gläser is at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig 04103, Germany.,

    Roger Gläser

Authors
  1. Roger Gläser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Roger Gläser.

Related links

Related links

Related links in Nature Research

Catalysis: Tens of thousands of atoms replaced by one

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Gläser, R. The complexity of intimacy. Nature 528, 197–198 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/528197a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/528197a

Further reading

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing