Medical University of South Carolina

Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.

Toyota Motor Corporation

Christopher T Williams

John R Regalbuto

Horie Adabi Firouzjaie

Abolfazl Shakouri

William E Mustain

Shinichi Matsumoto

Hirohito Hirata

Paul Timothy Fanson

Michael D Amiridis

David S Deutsch

Attilio Siani

Described herein is a general scalable synthesis method for a high density of single metal atoms in a supported catalyst, supported isolated atoms featuring unique reactivity and the support materials determine the stability, electronic properties, and local environment which can be adjusted for targeted heterogeneous catalysis applications.

Method to produce high densities of isolated atoms on support substrates

Disclosed are methods for forming a supported catalyst and catalysts formed according to disclosed methods. Methods include contacting a catalyst support with a precursor solution and displacing the solvent of the precursor solution (e.g., water) with a second solvent that has a lower surface tension than the first solvent. The second solvent displaces the first solution according to the Marangoni effect. Methods also include activation of the precursor to form a catalyst, e.g., a supported platinum group metal catalyst or the like.

Scalable method for production of supported catalysts

There is disclosed a process for producing a catalyst. The process includes the steps of: a) combining a dendrimer polymer and metal salt in solution forming a metal ion complex; b) exposing the metal ion complex to a reducing environment forming a dendrimer metal nanocomposite; c) depositing the dendrimer metal nanocomposite onto a catalyst support material; d) removing a solvent from the dendrimer metal nanocomposite forming metal clusters; and e) removing the dendrimer polymer forming a catalyst. Additionally, there is disclosed a catalyst having a catalytic metal deposited on a substrate. The catalytic metal is formed in clusters having a size of from 2 to 150 atoms. In another aspect, the clusters may have a spacing of from 2 to 100 nanometers between adjacent metal clusters. Further, in another aspect, the metal clusters which comprise the catalyst have a size distribution in which 70% of the clusters are within 0.6 nm of the average diameter and 99% of the particles are within 1.5 nm of the average diameter.

Supported catalysts with controlled metal cluster size

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Columbia, SC, United States of America

Christopher T Williams