The catalytic hydrogenation of nitroarenes is an environmentally benign technology for the production of anilines, which are key intermediates for manufacturing agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and dyes. Most of the precious metal catalysts, however, suffer from low chemoselectivity when one or more reducible groups are present in a nitroarene molecule. Herein we report FeO_x-supported platinum single-atom and pseudo-single-atom structures as highly active, chemoselective and reusable catalysts for hydrogenation of a variety of substituted nitroarenes. For hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene, the catalyst yields a TOF of ~1,500 h^-1, 20-fold higher than the best result reported in literature, and a selectivity to 3-aminostyrene close to 99%, the best ever achieved over platinum group metals. The superior performance can be attributed to the presence of positively charged platinum centres and the absence of Pt–Pt metallic bonding, both of which favour the preferential adsorption of nitro groups.

The ability of Au catalysts to effect the challenging task of utilizing molecular oxygen for the selective epoxidation of cyclooctene is fascinating. Although supported nanometre-size Au particles are poorly active, here we show that solubilized atomic Au clusters, present in ng ml^-1 concentrations and stabilized by ligands derived from the oxidized hydrocarbon products, are active. They can be formed from various Au sources. They generate initiators and propagators to trigger the onset of the auto-oxidation reaction with an apparent turnover frequency of 440 s^-1, and continue to generate additional initiators throughout the auto-oxidation cycle without direct participation in the cycle. Spectroscopic characterization suggests that 7–8 atom clusters are effective catalytically. Extension of work based on these understandings leads to the demonstration that these Au clusters are also effective in selective oxidation of cyclohexene, and that solubilized Pt clusters are also capable of generating initiators for cyclooctene epoxidation.

To probe the nature of metal-catalysed processes and to design better metal-based catalysts, atomic scale understanding of catalytic processes is highly desirable. Here we use aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscopy to investigate the atomic scale processes of silver-based nanoparticles, which catalyse the oxidation of multi-wall carbon nanotubes. A direct semi-quantitative estimate of the oxidized carbon atoms by silver-based nanoparticles is achieved. A mechanism similar to the Mars–van Krevelen process is invoked to explain the catalytic oxidation process. Theoretical calculations, together with the experimental data, suggest that the oxygen molecules dissociate on the surface of silver nanoparticles and diffuse through the silver nanoparticles to reach the silver/carbon interfaces and subsequently oxidize the carbon. The lattice distortion caused by oxygen concentration gradient within the silver nanoparticles provides the direct evidence for oxygen diffusion. Such direct observation of atomic scale dynamics provides an important general methodology for investigations of catalytic processes.

The development of thermodynamically stable supported bimetallic catalysts for high-temperature reaction is significant and highly desirable but remains a grand challenge. In this work, we report a novel approach that relies on the interaction of metal nanoparticles with the support material to form unique bimetallic nanoparticles, which epitaxially anchor onto the support surface. Such unique nanostructured systems are catalytically active and ultrastable during selected catalytic reactions. In this paper, we describe the synthesis processes of ultrastable PtZn nanoparticles epitaxially anchored onto ZnO nanowires, which primarily consist of {10−10} nanoscale facets. Such anchored PtZn nanoparticles demonstrated good stability during high temperature treatments and selected catalytic reactions. The synthesis approach reported in this work provides a new strategy to develop thermodynamically stable supported bimetallic catalysts.

A catalytic site typically consists of one or more atoms of a catalyst surface that arrange into a configuration offering a specific electronic structure for adsorbing or dissociating reactant molecules. The catalytic activity of adjacent bimetallic sites of metallic nanoparticles has been studied previously. An isolated bimetallic site supported on a non-metallic surface could exhibit a distinctly different catalytic performance owing to the cationic state of the singly dispersed bimetallic site and the minimized choices of binding configurations of a reactant molecule compared with continuously packed bimetallic sites. Here we report that isolated Rh1Co3 bimetallic sites exhibit a distinctly different catalytic performance in reduction of nitric oxide with carbon monoxide at low temperature, resulting from strong adsorption of two nitric oxide molecules and a nitrous oxide intermediate on Rh1Co3 sites and following a low-barrier pathway dissociation to dinitrogen and an oxygen atom. This observation suggests a method to develop catalysts with high selectivity.