Nanotubular Gamma Alumina with High-Energy External Surfaces: Synthesis and High Performance for Catalysis

作者:Cai, Weimeng; Zhang, Shengen; Lv, Jiangang; Chen, Junchao; Yang, Jie; Wang, Yibo; Guo, Xuefeng; Peng, Luming; Ding, Weiping*; Chen, Yi; Lei, Yanhua; Chen, Zhaoxu*; Yang, Weimin; Xie, Zaiku
来源:ACS Catalysis, 2017, 7(6): 4083-4092.
DOI:10.1021/acscatal.7b00080

摘要

Inorganic nanocrystals catalysts with a high proportion of high-energy surfaces can bring about high performance for catalysis and has been an important research topic in the past decades. Gamma alumina is one of the most important inorganic oxides used as solid acids or catalytic support for many more industrial catalysts. However, the preparation of gamma alumina mainly with high-energy external surfaces has never been reported because it has a complicated crystal structure. We demonstrate here in depth a new-type gamma-alumina material from a systematic investigation, which is controllably synthesized as regular nanotubes with high-energy {1 1 1} facets as main external surfaces. The new-type material shows much better performance as acid catalyst or catalytic support for metals, as compared with common gamma-alumina whose main exposed surface is stable {100} or {110} facets in irregular morphology. As an example, palladium loaded on the new-type gamma-alumina is easily prepared in higher dispersion and unique electronic states upon the stronger interaction with the support, giving rise to better catalytic performance for semihydrogenation of alkynes, without any assistance of other metals. The systematic investigation should open opportunities of catalyst innovation for new chemical reactions.