Kinetic diffusion-controlled synthesis of twinned intermetallic nanocrystals for CO-resistant catalysis

Kun Wang; Lei Wang; Zhen Yao; Lei Zhang; Luyao Zhang; Xusheng Yang; Yingbo Li; Yang-Gang Wang; Yan Li; Feng Yang

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abo4599

Kinetic diffusion-controlled synthesis of twinned intermetallic nanocrystals for CO-resistant catalysis

Sci Adv. 2022 Jun 24;8(25):eabo4599. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abo4599. Epub 2022 Jun 22.

Authors

Kun Wang¹, Lei Wang¹, Zhen Yao¹, Lei Zhang¹, Luyao Zhang¹, Xusheng Yang¹, Yingbo Li¹, Yang-Gang Wang¹, Yan Li^{2

3

4}, Feng Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China.
² Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Science, Key Laboratory for the Physics and Chemistry of Nanodevices, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China.
³ Peking University Shenzhen Institute, Shenzhen 518057, China.
⁴ PKU-HKUST Shenzhen-Hong Kong Institution, Shenzhen 518055, China.

Abstract

Intermetallic catalysts are of immense interest, but how heterometals diffuse and related interface structure remain unclear when there exists a strong metal-support interaction. Here, we developed a kinetic diffusion-controlled method and synthesized intermetallic Pt₂Mo nanocrystals with twin boundaries on mesoporous carbon (Pt₂Mo/C). The formation of small-sized twinned intermetallic nanocrystals is associated with the strong Mo-C interaction-induced slow Mo diffusion and the heterogeneity of alloying, which is revealed by an in situ aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope (TEM) at high temperature. The twinned Pt₂Mo/C constitutes a promising CO-resistant catalyst for highly selective hydrogenation of nitroarenes. Theoretical calculations and environmental TEM suggest that the weakened CO adsorption over Pt sites of Pt₂Mo twin boundaries and their local region endows them with high CO resistance, selectivity, and reusability. The present strategy paves the way for tailoring the interface structure of high-melting point Mo/W-based intermetallic nanocrystals that proved to be important for the industrially viable reactions.