Designed Precursor for the Controlled Synthesis of Highly Active Atomic and Sub-nanometric Platinum Catalysts on Mesoporous Silica

The development of new methods to synthesize nanometric metal catalysts has always been an important and prerequisite step in advanced catalysis. Herein, we design a stable nitrogen ligated Pt complex for the straightforward synthesis by carbonization of uniformly sized atomic and sub-nanometric Pt catalysts supported on mesoporous silica. During the carbonization of the Pt precursor into active Pt species, the nitrogen-containing ligand directed the decomposition in a controlled fashion to maintain uniform sizes of the Pt species. The nitrogen ligand had a key role to stabilize the single Pt atoms on a weak anchoring support like silica. The Pt catalysts exhibited remarkable activities in the hydrogenation of common organic functional groups with turnover frequencies higher than in previous studies. By a simple post-synthetic treatment, we could selectively remove the Pt nanoparticles to obtain a mixture of single atoms and nanoclusters, extending the applicability of the present method.