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Liquid-mediated Ostwald ripening of Ag-based clusters supported on oxides

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Abstract

Reconstruction of supported nanocatalysts often occurs in gas–solid reactions and significantly affects the catalytic performance, yet it is much less explored in liquid-phase environment. Herein, we find that highly-dispersed Ag nanocatalysts, i.e., AgOx clusters, supported on alumina, silica, and titania, can aggregate into larger Ag or Ag2O particles after immersing in liquid-phase media at room temperature. The spontaneous aggregation of AgOx clusters in liquid water is attributed to liquid-phase Ostwald ripening through dissolution of AgOx clusters into water and subsequent redeposition to form Ag2O particles. The immersion into organic solvents such as ethanol leads to reduction of AgOx clusters and further growth into Ag particles. This work reveals that liquid-phase reaction media can induce substantial structural evolution of supported nanostructured catalysts, which should be carefully considered in liquid–solid interface catalytic reactions such as electrocatalysis, environmental catalysis, and organic synthesis in liquid phase.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (Nos. 2021YFA1502800, 2022YFA1504800, and 2022YFA1504500), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21825203, 22288201, 22332006, and 22321002), Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB0600300), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 20720220009), and Photon Science Center for Carbon Neutrality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Conghui Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Catalysis, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Dalian, 116023, China

    Conghui Liu, Rongtan Li, Yamei Fan, Shiwen Li, Xiaohui Feng, Lu Feng, Yanxiao Ning & Qiang Fu

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  1. Conghui Liu
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  2. Rongtan Li
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Correspondence to Qiang Fu.

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Liu, C., Li, R., Fan, Y. et al. Liquid-mediated Ostwald ripening of Ag-based clusters supported on oxides. Nano Res. 17, 4971–4978 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6503-y

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