Designing and developing materials with specific properties are nowadays important tasks. These could be achieved by choosing the adequate conditions, from a myriad of possibilities, being aware that slight changes in the preparation method could have major impact on the final material. With the work presented here, we are showing that kinetically controlled surface nano-structuring (NPs formation and deposition over solid supports) in scCO2 is a versatile way for preparing active materials.
Size, composition, morphology and organization/architecture of supported metal NPs can be controlled by playing with the type of metal, metal precursor, reaction media composition (stronger or weaker reducing media) and different supports employed. Moreover, direct correlation between physical (size, morphology, organization) and chemical properties (composition, surface chemistry) are demonstrated with the systems catalytic behaviour, yield and selectivity, exemplified with N-alkylation reaction of amines with alcohols.
This article originally appeared in The Journal of Supercritical Fluids 105, 2015, Pages 84-91
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