ChemCatChem

Thumbs up or thumbs down: As stabilizers and structure-determining components, organic surfactants are irreplaceable in many colloidal nanoparticle preparation methods. The effect of ligands on the structure and catalytic performance of mono- and bimetallic Pt and PtSn nanoparticles toward the selective hydrogenation of acetylene is investigated.

Composite success: Ag/AgBr-grafted graphite-like carbon nitride (g-C₃N₄) is fabricated by the in situ photoreduction of AgBr/g-C₃N₄ hybrids prepared by a deposition–precipitation method. Compared with bare g-C₃N₄ and Ag/AgBr nanoparticles, respective 28-fold and 6-fold enhancements in the degradation rate toward rhodamine B are observed over Ag/AgBr/g-C₃N₄ hybrids under visible-light irradiation.

A parting of the waves: A prototype microflow system for the continuous recycling of homogeneous catalysts through liquid/liquid phase separation was developed and its effectiveness demonstrated in a challenging palladium-catalyzed hydroxylation reaction. The unmodified catalyst is recycled under standard reaction conditions by using a combination of chemical and engineering methods.

All coated up: Platinum nanoparticles loaded on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) are coated with pyridine-containing polybenzimidazole (PyPBI). Interestingly, although a slight decrease in the accessibility of methanol is observed after coating, the methanol oxidation activity of Pt dramatically improves after coating with PyPBI.

DRIFTing through time: Modulation excitation in situ diffuse-reflectance IR Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy with periodic isotopic perturbation (D₂ and ¹³CO) has been applied to elucidate the pathway for the preferential oxidation of carbon monoxide (PROX) over a commercial Pt/alumina catalyst. The time- and phase-domain IR spectra suggest a water-assisted pathway for the preferential oxidation reaction.