Highly dispersed metal incorporating

Highly dispersed metal-incorporating conducting polymers... 

When a metalate ion, such as PtCl " or AUCI4 as well as phosphotungstate was used as electrolyte in the electrolytic polymerizations of pyrrole and thiophene, PtClJ /PPy and AuCl /PTh composites were obtained, respectively. The incorporations of Pt and Au " were confirmed by ESCA measurements. The resulting conducting polymers, incorporating highly dispersed metal, may find applications as catalysts etc. 

Catalysts were some of the first nanostructured materials applied in industry, and many of the most important catalysts used today are nanomaterials. These are usually dispersed on the surfaces of supports (carriers), which are often nearly inert platforms for the catalytically active structures. These structures include metal complexes as well as clusters, particles, or layers of metal, metal oxide, or metal sulfide. The solid supports usually incorporate nanopores and a large number of catalytic nanoparticles per unit volume on a high-area internal surface (typically hundreds of square meters per cubic centimeter). A benefit of the high dispersion of a catalyst is that it is used effectively, because a large part of it is at a surface and accessible to reactants. There are other potential benefits of high dispersion as well— nanostructured catalysts have properties different from those of the bulk material, possibly including unique catalytic activities and selectivities. 

The aerogel-prepared metal oxide nanoparticles constitute a new class of porous inorganic materials because of their unique morphological features such as crystal shape, pore structure, high pore volume, and surface areas. Also, it is possible to load catalytic metals such as Fe or Cu at very high dispersions on these oxide supports and hence the nanocrystalline oxide materials can also function as unusual catalyst supports. Furthermore, these oxides can be tailored for desired Lewis base/Lewis acid strengths by incorporation of thin layers of other oxide materials or by preparation of mixed metal oxides. 

For the overall performance of potential catalysts in practical application additional factors, such as number of active sites, physical form, and porosity must also be taken into account. The classical commercial iron catalyst is an unsupported catalyst. First of all iron is a cheap material and secondly by the incorporation of alumina a surface area similar to that attained in highly dispersed supported catalysts can be obtained. Of course, for an expensive material such as the platinum group metals, the use of a support material is the only viable option. The properties of the supported catalyst will be influenced by several factors [172]... 

The proposed approach is a universal method that can be applied for successful fabrication of metal-clay nanocomposites with high thermal stability, high dispersity of metal nanoparticles inside the clay matrix and catalytic activity. This work provides original insights into the production of layered naiocomjwsites loaded with inorganic nanoparticles. The ultrasonic treatment accelerates the incorporation process. The Au nanoparticle /clay nanocomposites can be useful for creation of different devices such as nanocondenser systems, sensors, optoelectronic elements. 

The high dispersity inside the nano-honeycomb matrix and the high surface area of the nanopartides leads to very good electrocatalytic activity. The electrocatalytic activities of nanosized platinum particles for methanol, formic add and formaldehyde electrooxidation have been recently reported [215]. The sensitivity of the catalyst particles has been interpreted in terms of a catalyst ensemble effect but the detailed microscopic behaviour is incomplete. Martin and co-workers [216] have demonstrated the incorporation of catalytic metal nanopartides such as Pt, Ru and Pt/Ru into carbon nanotubes and further used them in the electrocatalysis of oxygen reduction, methanol electrooxidation and gas phase catalysis of hydrocarbons. A related work on the incorporation of platinum nanopartides in carbon nanotubes has recently been reported to show promising electrocatalytic activity for oxygen reduction [217]. 

As a result of the catalyst preparation methods used, highly dispersed and low crystallinity of oxide phases are obtained. No evidence of nickel oxide particles greater than 5 nanometers was observed in the XRD spectra of the samples in which metal was incorporated during the preparation of the support. On the contrary, XRD of catalysts in which nickel was impregnated clearly showed the diffraction bands corresponding to NiO. 

M. Watanabe, H. Uchida and M. Emori, Polymer electrolyte membranes incorporated with nanometer-size particles of Pt and/or metal-oxides Experimental analysis of the self-humification and suppression of gas-crossover in fuel cell, J. Phys. Chem., B, 1998, 102, 3129-3137 M. Watanabe, H. Uchida, Y. Seki and M. Emori and P. Stonehart, Self-humidifying polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cell, J. Electrochem. Soc., 1996, 143, 3847-3852 H. Uchida, Y. Mizuno and M. Watanabe, Suppression of methanol crossover in Pt-dispersed polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell, Chem. Lett., 2000, 1268-1269 H. Uchida, Y. Ueno, H. Hagihara and M. Watanabe, Self-humidifying electrolyte membranes for fuel cells, preparation of highly dispersed Ti02 particles in Nafion 112, J. Electrochem. Soc., 2003, 150, A57-A62. 

Zeolite catalysts incorporated or encapsulated with transition metal cations such as Mo, or Ti into the frameworks or cavities of various microporous and mesoporous molecular sieves were synthesized by a hydrothermal synthesis method. A combination of various spectroscopic techniques and analyses of the photocatalytic reaction products has revealed that these transition metal cations constitute highly dispersed tetrahedrally coordinated oxide species which enable the zeolite catalysts to act as efficient and effective photocatalysts for the various reactions such as the decomposition of NO into N2 and O2 and the reduction of CO2 with H2O into CH3OH and CH4. Investigations on the photochemical reactivities of these oxide species with reactant molecules such as NOx, hydrocarbonds, CO2 and H2O showed that the charge transfer excited triplet state of the oxides, i.e., (Mo - O ), - O ), and (Ti - O ), plays a significant role in the photocatalytic reactions. Thus, the present results have clearly demonstrated the unique and high photocatalytic reactivities of various microporous and mesoporous zeolitic materials incorporated with Mo, V, or Ti oxide species as well as the close relationship between the local structures of these transition metal oxide species and their photocatalytic reactivities. 

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