(761a) Nanocavity Oxide Supports and Catalysts

This talk will discuss our recent efforts to develop oxide nanocavity materials as catalyst supports and as selective catalysts in their own right. The unique synthesis method employed utilizes molecular templates on an oxide surface prior to partial overcoating by a second oxide by atom-precise techniques like atomic layer deposition. We and collaborators have demonstrated the resulting patchy surfaces to have characteristic dimensions of ~1 nm and to allow reactant selective reactions from mixtures of, e.g. two alcohols.[1] We will discussion extensions of this work including further analysis of the mechanism of reactant selection, quantification of the covered vs open domains for the two oxides, and the 'backfilling' of the nanocavities with metals for selective nanoparticle growth.

This material is based on work supported as part of the Institute for Atom-Efficient Chemical Transformations (IACT), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Science.

[1] “Shape-Selective Sieving Layers on an Oxide Catalyst Surface,” Canlas, C.P.; Lu, J.; Ray, N.; Grosso-Giordano, N.; Elam, J.W.; Lee, S.; Winans, R.E.; Stair, P.C.; Van Duyne, R.P.; Notestein, J.M. Nature Chem., 2012, 4, 1030-1036.