Thursday, January 19, 2023

3D-printed single-atom catalysts brings industry use closer

Amazing stuff! This could have some huge potential!

"A simple protocol has been developed to make single-atom catalysts using 3D printing. The researchers believe the procedure, which removes the need for a variety of complex and expensive synthetic processes, could prove scalable and therefore allow industry to benefit from the advantages of single-atom catalysis.
In single-atom catalysts, the catalyst is atomically dispersed – usually on a solid substrate. This offers several advantages over traditional heterogeneous catalysts, such as greater atom economy and the potential to tailor reaction pathways with tailored coordination environments.  ...
employed iron acetylacetonate and natural polymers to form an ink. They then deposited this on substrates in a variety of different patterns before freeze-drying it to remove excess water. Finally, they heated the printed scaffold to 700°C. When they examined the resulting structure using multiple characterisation methods, they confirmed that the metal atoms were atomically dispersed on carbon substrates, with no evidence of cluster formation. Moreover, the material was an excellent electrocatalyst for the reduction of nitrate to ammonia. ..."

From the abstract:
"A mass production route to single-atom catalysts (SACs) is crucial for their end use application. To date, the direct fabrication of SACs via a simple and economic manufacturing route remains a challenge, with current approaches relying on convoluted processes using expensive components. Here, a straightforward and cost-effective three-dimensional (3D) printing approach is developed to fabricate a library of SACs. Despite changing synthetic parameters, including centre transition metal atom, metal loading, coordination environment and spatial geometry, the products show similar atomic dispersion nature of single metal sites, demonstrating the generality of the approach. The 3D-printed SACs exhibited excellent activity and stability in the nitrate reduction reaction. It is expected that this 3D-printing technique can be used as a method for large-scale commercial production of SACs, thus enabling the use of these materials in a broad spectrum of industrial applications."

3D-printed single-atom catalysts brings industry use closer | Research | Chemistry World




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