Isolated Single-Atom Pd Sites in Intermetallic Nanostructures: High Catalytic Selectivity for Semihydrogenation of Alkynes

Improving the catalytic selectivity of Pd catalysts is of key importance for various industrial processes and remains a challenge so far. Given the unique properties of single-atom catalysts, isolating contiguous Pd atoms into a single-Pd site with another metal to form intermetallic structures is an effective way to endow Pd with high catalytic selectivity and to stabilize the single site with the intermetallic structures. Based on density functional theory modeling, we demonstrate that the (110) surface of Pm3̅m PdIn with single-atom Pd sites shows high selectivity for semihydrogenation of acetylene, whereas the (111) surface of P4/mmm Pd3In with Pd trimer sites shows low selectivity. This idea has been further validated by experimental results that intermetallic PdIn nanocrystals mainly exposing the (110) surface exhibit much higher selectivity for acetylene hydrogenation than Pd3In nanocrystals mainly exposing the (111) surface (92% vs 21% ethylene selectivity at 90 °C). This work provides insight for rational design of bimetallic metal catalysts with specific catalytic properties.