Syntheses and applications of nanocatalysts based on nanoporous materials

Heterogeneous catalysis has always been an inherently nanoscopic phenomenon with important technological and societal consequences for energy conversion and the production of chemicals. In fact, catalysts have been reported to represent the oldest commercial application of nanotechnology. Nanocatalysts are generally defined as nanoscale materials that have at least one nanoscale dimension, or have been subjected to nanoscale structural modification in order to enhance their catalytic activity. They could be classified into four distinct types of catalysts: nanoparticulate, nanoporous, nanocrystalline, and supramolecular catalysts. Most catalysts have consisted of nanometre-sized particles dispersed on a high-surface-area support, but recent advances in synthetic methods are leading to increasingly precise control of the variables affecting catalyst activity and selectivity in the nanoporous catalyst. Widespread applications of nanoporous materials in the fields of catalysis, adsorption and separation have emphasised the need to search for new structures with new framework compositions. This contribution summarises recent results on the synthesis, characterisation, and catalytic performance of new nanoporous catalysts performed by the present authors.