Earth-abundant Ni-Zn nanocrystals for efficient alkyne semihydrogenation catalysis.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40355439.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-58838-8 and PMC identifier 12069521.
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Abstract
The development of catalysts that are based on earth-abundant metals remains a grand challenge. Alloy nanocrystals (NCs) form an emerging class of heterogeneous catalysts, offering the promise of small, uniform catalysts with composition-control. Here, we report the synthesis of small Ni and bimetallic Ni-X (X= Zn, Ga, In) NCs for alkyne semihydrogenation catalysis. We show that Ni<sub>3</sub>Zn NCs are particularly reactive and selective under mild reaction conditions and at low loadings. While bimetallic NCs are all more selective than pure Ni NCs, Ni-Zn NCs also maintain excellent reactivity compared to Ni-Ga and Ni-In alloys. Ab-initio calculations can explain the differences in reactivity, indicating that, unlike Ga and In, Zn atoms interact with the substrates. We further show that Ni<sub>3</sub>Zn NCs are robust and tolerate a broad range of substrates, which may be linked to the favorable amine-terminated surface.