Angewandte
Communications
Chemie
The catalyst was synthesized by a simple three-step
method. PMA was first embedded on a support by wet-
impregnation. The primary screening of supports and solvents
was based on the ability of the support to adsorb PMA at
room temperature. A series of common supports (Al2O3,
SiO2, TiO2, WO3, ZSM-5, HY, HAP, CaSiO3, and activated
carbon (AC)) and solvents (H2O, HCl in H2O (0.5m), ethanol,
and acetone) were examined. AC exhibited the strongest
affinity for PMA, resulting in 100% absorption regardless of
the solvent. The exceptional affinity of AC for PMA can be
attributed to its oxygen enriched hydroxyl, ketone, and
carboxyl groups on the surface (Supporting Information,
Figure S1 (XPS spectra) and Table S1 (elemental analysis)).
Acetone was employed as the solvent, as PMA decomposes
easily in water at elevated pH[8] and can oxidize alcohols. In
the second step, readily reducible Pt(acac)2 was introduced
onto PMA/AC by impregnation. Pt(acac)2 shares a similar
size with PMA (0.7 nm vs. 1.0 nm) so that a 1:1 interaction
between the precursor and the anchoring site is expected.
Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) con-
firmed that Pt(acac)2 was physically adsorbed on PMA, rather
than undergoing proton exchange between ligands (Support-
ing Information, Figures S2 and S3). Following a final reduc-
tion step, Pt1 SAC forms on PMA modified AC. We envisaged
that our system could stabilize a large number of Pt single
atoms: 1) Pt has a choice among various sites on PMA and
may thus occupy the most stable configuration (thermody-
namic control), and 2) the kinetic barrier of agglomeration for
atoms anchored on spatially separated PMA species is
substantially higher than those on unmodified support
(kinetic control).
The reduction behavior of Pt pre-catalysts over H2 was
determined from their temperature-programmed reduction
(TPR) profiles, as shown in Figure 2a. Unreduced sample is
denoted as Pt(acac)2-PMA/AC, and reduced sample as
Pt-PMA/AC. For comparison, 1 wt% Pt on AC without
PMA (denoted as Pt(acac)2/AC before reduction, and Pt/AC
after reduction, respectively) and PMA/AC were prepared
following the same method. A reduction peak located at
approximately 1508C was observed for Pt(acac)2/AC, while
the peak shifted to about 1208C for Pt(acac)2-PMA/AC,
indicating a change in the reducibility of Pt(acac)2. Based on
TPR profiles, 1708C was selected as the unified reducing
temperature for all samples. After reduction, inductively
coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES)
analysis indicated a Pt loading of 0.88 wt% on Pt/AC and
0.91 wt% on Pt-PMA/AC. FTIR spectra of reduced samples
suggested complete removal of acacꢀ ligand (Supporting
Information, Figures S4 and S5).
Figure 2. a) TPR profiles of Pt(acac)2/AC and Pt(acac)2-PMA/AC.
Reduction conditions: 5%H2 in N2, 100 mLminꢀ1, 108Cminꢀ1 heating
rate (70–2008C), catalyst (50 mg). Before heating, the sample was
stabilized in 5%H2 in N2 at 708C for 60 min. b) XRD patterns of PMA,
AC, PMA/AC, Pt/AC, and Pt-PMA/AC. The predicted diffraction peaks
for Pt metal are indicated with dashed lines. A typical TEM image of
c) Pt/AC and d) Pt-PMA/AC.
X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) analysis of the same area on the
Pt-PMA/AC material (Supporting Information, Figure S8)
confirmed the existence of Pt with an estimated content of
0.97 wt%, very close to the ICP-OES results. In the XRD
pattern of Pt/AC (Figure 2b), three peaks at 408, 478, and 688,
were observed, corresponding to the respective (111), (200),
and (220) crystal phases of Pt NPs.[9] A crystallite size of
3.8 nm was estimated from the broadening profile of the (111)
peak at 408 using the Scherrer equation. In contrast, no XRD
peak was observed for Pt-PMA/AC. As such, the size of Pt
species in Pt-PMA/AC is below the detection limit of XRD
and TEM, possibly in the single-atom regime.
Extended X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy
(EXAFS) provided key evidences on the dispersion of Pt
species on PMA modified AC. A Pt-Pt contribution at about
2.7 ꢀ was not observable in the k3-weighted EXAFS at the Pt
L3-edge of Pt-PMA/AC (Figure 3a), strongly indicating that
Pt exists predominantly as isolated atoms. The only prom-
inent shell, located at approximately 1.8 ꢀ, arises from a Pt-O
contribution. Unlike Pt-PMA/AC, Pt/AC exhibited a strong
Pt-Pt shell corroborating the existence of Pt NPs. A Pt-O shell
was also detected, plausibly arising from the interactions
between Pt NPs and the abundant surface oxygen-containing
groups on AC. The spectrum of Pt(acac)2-PMA/AC strongly
resembled that of pure Pt(acac)2, in good agreement with
ESI-MS analysis, where only a weak interaction between
Pt(acac)2 and PMA was identified. Combining TEM, XRD,
and in particular EXAFS analysis, it is evident that Pt SACs
could be successfully obtained on PMA modified AC with
a loading close to 1 wt%.
The reduced samples were then investigated by trans-
mission electron microscopy (TEM) and powder X-ray
diffraction (XRD) to probe the size and morphology of Pt
species. As expected, no PMA aggregates were detected from
TEM images in PMA/AC, suggesting uniform dispersion of
PMA on AC (Supporting Information, Figure S6). Pt NPs in
the size range of 1.7–3.6 nm (with an average of 2.5 nm) were
observed in Pt/AC (Figure 2c; Supporting Information,
Figure S7), whereas no NPs or clusters were detected on
Pt-PMA/AC (Figure 2d). Nevertheless, energy-dispersive
Curve-fitting was conducted based on two main peaks in
the R range of 1–3.2 ꢀ. The resulting first shell coordination
parameters, bond length, and the corresponding standard
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ꢀ 2016 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2016, 55, 1 – 6
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