Delivery of Highly Active Noble-Metal Nanoparticles into Microspherical Supports by an Aerosol-Spray Method.

Noble metal nanoparticles (NPs) with 1-5 nm diameter obtained from NaHB4 reduction possess high catalytic activity. However, they are rarely used directly. This work presents a facile, versatile, and efficient aerosol-spray approach to deliver noble-metal NPs into metal oxide supports, while maintaining the size of the NPs and the ability to easily adjust the loading amount. In comparison with the conventional spray approach, the size of the loaded noble-metal nanoparticles can be significantly decreased. An investigation of the 4-nitrophenol hydrogenation reaction catalyzed by these materials suggests that the NPs/oxides catalysts have high activity and good endurance. For 1 % Au/CeO2 and Pd/Al2 O3 catalysts, the rate constants reach 2.03 and 1.46 min(-1) , which is much higher than many other reports with the same noble-metal loading scale. Besides, the thermal stability of catalysts can be significantly enhanced by modifying the supports. Therefore, this work contributes an efficient method as well as some guidance on how to produce highly active and stable supported noble-metal catalysts.