Metal particles structure

Unfortunately, until very recently experimental studies of small metal particle structure usually lacked the resolution necessary to observe differences between various geometries. In most cases only average particle sizes or size distributions are obtained and these usually assume simple cubic or spherical geometries. Technology was not available (and is still not very accessible) to study local surface disorders on an ordered core of a small particle. Some structural differences between small metal particles produced in different ways have been observed, however. These may be compared to large cluster compounds whose detailed structure can be determined by X-ray crystallographic methods (see Section III). 

Figure S.1S. Upper Equilibrium polyhedrons of metal particles on a support for different combinations of free energies of surfaces and interfaces. Lower Transmission electron microscopy of structures obtained by depositing 5-10 ML of Pd on a MgO surface. [Adapted from www.fysik.dtu.dk/CAMP, and C.R. Henry, Surf. Sci. Rep. 21 (1998) l.j...

Diffraction patterns having relatively well-defined sharp spots can be obtained from small unit-cell crystals with an incident beam of diameter 10-158. Such patterns have been used in the study of the structures of small metal particles (22). For particles 10-20A diameter the electron beam can illuminate the whole of the particle... 

The shape of the nanoparticles depends on numerous parameters such as the nature of the metal and the support, the metal loading. Of the various models of polyhedral metal particles [106], the cubooctaedral structure can be used to represent small metallic particles (Scheme 31). Note that these idealized structures can vary with the nature of chemisorbed species (vide infra) and very subtle atomic rearrangements probably occur during catalytic events. 

This study could be extended to the synthesis of iron nanoparticles. Using Fe[N(SiMe3)2]2 as precursor and a mixture of HDA and oleic acid, spherical nanoparticles are initially formed as in the case of cobalt. However, a thermal treatment at 150 °C in the presence of H2 leads to coalescence of the particles into cubic particles of 7 nm side length. Furthermore, these particles self-organize into cubic super-structures (cubes of cubes Fig. ) [79]. The nanoparticles are very air-sensitive but consist of zerovalent iron as evidenced by Mossbauer spectroscopy. The fact that the spherical particles present at the early stage of the reaction coalesce into rods in the case of cobalt and cubes in the case of iron is attributed to the crystal structure of the metal particles hep for cobalt, bcc for iron. 

Industrial catalysts are usually composed of inorganic supports and metals on the supports. They are often prepared by heat treatment of metal ions on the support at high temperature sometimes under hydrogen. They have very complex structures. For example, they are the mixtures of metal particles with various sizes and shapes. Metal particles often strongly interact with the inorganic supports, thus resulting in the structure of half balls. 

This approach of using 2D and 3D monodisperse nanoparticles in catalytic reaction studies ushers in a new era that will permit the identification of the molecular and structural features of selectivity [4,9]. Metal particle size, nanoparticle surface-structure, oxide-metal interface sites, selective site blocking, and hydrogen pressure have been implicated as important factors influencing reaction selectivity. We believe additional molecular ingredients of selectivity will be uncovered by coupling the synthesis of monodisperse nanoparticles with simultaneous studies of catalytic reaction selectivity as a function of the structural properties of these model nanoparticle catalyst systems. 

Attempts to determine how the activity of the catalyst (or the selectivity which is, in a rough approximation, the ratio of reaction rates) depends upon the metal particle size have been undertaken for many decades. In 1962, one of the most important figures in catalysis research, M. Boudart, proposed a definition for structure sensitivity [4,5]. A heterogeneously catalyzed reaction is considered to be structure sensitive if its rate, referred to the number of active sites and, thus, expressed as turnover-frequency (TOF), depends on the particle size of the active component or a specific crystallographic orientation of the exposed catalyst surface. Boudart later expanded this model proposing that structure sensitivity is related to the number of (metal surface) atoms to which a crucial reaction intermediate is bound [6]. 

Before investigating the effect of size, shape, and structure on catalytic behavior, that is, TOFs, a set of five requirements concerning the metal particles has to be met. Besides a monodisperse size distribution, the nanoparticles should be fully reduced, unpoisoned, unperturbed by... 

Besides supported (transition) metal catalysts, structure sensitivity can also be observed with bare (oxidic) support materials, too. In 2003, Hinrichsen et al. [39] investigated methanol synthesis at 30 bar and 300 °C over differently prepared zinc oxides, namely by precipitation, coprecipitation with alumina, and thermolysis of zinc siloxide precursor. Particle sizes, as determined by N2 physisorpt-ion and XRD, varied from 261 nm for a commercial material to 7.0 nm for the thermolytically obtained material. Plotting the areal rates against BET surface areas (Figure 3) reveals enhanced activity for the low surface area zinc... 

A study concerning the lowermost particle size necessary for admitting a reaction to occur is provided by Amiridis et al. [55] in their investigations of propene hydrogenation. For metal particle sizes greater than 2nm, hydrogenation of simple olefins is considered to be structure insensitive... 

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