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Surface Chemistry and Reactions for Bimetallic Au Catalysis (Final Report)

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1985274· OSTI ID:1985274
Gold-based catalysts offer tremendous opportunities for developing new technologies for selective oxidation reactions that directly use gas-phase oxygen as a benign reagent and produce either no byproducts or water as the only byproduct. These processes are urgently needed and critical for achieving the sustainable production of chemicals. While recent studies demonstrate that the catalytic properties of gold can be significantly enhanced by addition of other metals, the development of these catalysts with sufficient performance for commercialization is hindered by a lack of fundamental understanding of how the catalytic properties of gold can be controlled and tailored. This project addressed this need by synergistically combining experimental and computational studies to establish fundamental composition-structure-activity relationships for gold-based catalysts for several industrially important reactions. Results from surface spectroscopy, atomic imaging and thermal desorption experiments were combined with molecular models and reaction mechanisms from quantum chemical calculations to link observable reaction rates to the structure and composition of surfaces at the molecular level. The results were used to develop improved catalyst formulations and identify optimized reaction conditions for gold-based catalysts. For broader impacts, the developed methodology was extended to other metallic catalysts, such as silver, platinum-molybdenum and nickel-tin, for improved catalytic efficiency and sustainable production of specialty and commodity chemicals.
Research Organization:
Princeton University, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0019052
OSTI ID:
1985274
Report Number(s):
DOE-PU--0019052-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English