Ultrathin Coating of Confined Pt Nanocatalysts by Atomic Layer Deposition for Enhanced Catalytic Performance in Hydrogenation Reactions

Metal-support interfaces play a prominent role in heterogeneous catalysis. However, tailoring the metal-support interfaces to realize full utilization remains a major challenge. In this work, we propose a graceful strategy to maximize the metal-oxide interfaces by coating confined nanoparticles with an ultrathin oxide layer. This is achieved by sequential deposition of ultrathin Al₂O₃coats, Pt, and a thick Al₂O₃layer on carbon nanocoils templates by atomic layer deposition (ALD), followed by removal of the templates. Compared with the Pt catalysts confined in Al₂O₃nanotubes without the ultrathin coats, the ultrathin coated samples have larger Pt–Al₂O₃interfaces. The maximized interfaces significantly improve the activity and the protecting Al₂O₃nanotubes retain the stability for hydrogenation reactions of 4-nitrophenol. We believe that applying ALD ultrathin coats on confined catalysts is a promising way to achieve enhanced performance for other catalysts.