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Supported liquid metal catalysts

Popping up to the surface

Nature Chemistry volume 9, pages 833–834 (2017)Cite this article

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Merging the advantages of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts is a useful strategy for creating improved catalytic systems. Now, a concept has been developed that uses single Pd atoms — supported within liquid alloy droplets — that emerge from the droplet subsurface and interior to react with molecules approaching from the gas phase.

Nature does it best. This particularly holds true for catalysis, a field in which researchers and industry have always been playing catch-up when it comes to matching the efficiency and selectivity of enzymes. In many cases, the active site of an enzyme consists of a single metal atom held in place by ligands that not only provide a specific steric environment around the metal atom to predetermine reaction pathways, but also modify its electron density. Both geometric and electronic effects are critical to creating an active site with a low barrier to reaction and high chemical specificity; they enable enzymes to catalyse astonishing reactions and processes at room temperature that eventually enable life.

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Figure 1: Supported catalytically active liquid metal solutions.

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  1. Günther Rupprechter is in the Institute of Materials Chemistry, Technische Universität Wien, Getreidemarkt 9/BC, 1060 Vienna, Austria,

    Günther Rupprechter

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  1. Günther Rupprechter
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Correspondence to Günther Rupprechter.

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Rupprechter, G. Popping up to the surface. Nature Chem 9, 833–834 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2849

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