The design and fabrication of solid nanomaterials are the key issues in heterogeneous catalysis to achieve desired performance. Traditionally, the main theme is to reduce the size of the catalyst particles as small as possible for maximizing the number of active sites. In recent years, the rapid advancement in materials science has enabled us to fabricate catalyst particles with tuna- ble morphology. Consequently, both size modulation and morphology control of the catalyst particles can be achieved inde- pendently or synergistically to optimize their catalytic properties. In particular, morphology control of solid catalyst particles at the nanometer level can selectively expose the reactive crystal facets, and thus drastically promote their catalytic performance. In this review, we summarize our recent work on the morphology impact of Co304, CeO2 and Fe203 nanomaterials in catalytic reactions, together with related literature on morphology-dependent nanocatalysis of metal oxides, to demonstrate the importance of tuning the shape of oxide-nanocatalysts for prompting their activity, selectivity and stability, which is a rapidly growing topic in heterogeneous catalysis. The fundamental understanding of the active sites in morphology-tunable oxides that are enclosed by reactive crystal facets is expected to direct the development of highly efficient nanocatalysts.
Hexagonal β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets with edge length of 50 nm and thickness of 10 nm were hydrothermally synthesized with the aid of triethylamine.Upon calcination at 350°C in air,the β-Co(OH)2 nanosheets was converted into Co3O4 nanosheets with a similar dimension.Structural analyses during the calcination process identified that the β-Co(OH)2 precursor was initially dehydrated to HCoO2 and subsequently transferred into Co3O4.When being applied to catalyze CO oxidation at room temperature,the Co3O4 nanosheets exhibited a higher activity than the conventional spherical nanoparticles.This was perhaps related to the partial exposure of the{112}planes over the Co3O4 nanosheets.The porous structure generated during the calcination process also provided significant amounts of surface defects,which might contribute to the enhanced catalytic activity as well.
β-FeOOH nanorods of 40 nm wide and 450 nm long were fabricated through precisely regulating the hydrolysis kinetics of Fe3＋ in polyethylene glycol and the concentration of C1- as the structure-directing agent. Detailed structural and chemical analyses of the intermediates during the synthesis identified that the strong interaction between PEG and Fe3＋ modulated the hydrolysis kinetics of Fe3＋and prevented the aggregation of β-FeOOH nanorods; while C1- provided sufficient nucleation sites, stabilized the hollow channel of β-FeOOH, and more importantly induced the growth of the nanorods along [001] direction.
