配位子保護金属クラスター表面の理解と光電気化学的触媒反応への応用

抄録

Ligand-protected metal nanoclusters are easily obtained by simply mixing reagents in a solution and have relatively high stability due to their protection by organic ligands. Furthermore, their geometrical structures can be revealed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. Recently, it has been reported that the size-specific electronic/geometric structures of these metal nanoclusters can be utilized in many applications as highly active and selective catalysts. In this study, we deepened our understanding of the interaction between the metal core and the organic ligands protecting the metal nanoclusters, as well as the desorption behavior of the ligands under calcination conditions, which is important for the use of the metal nanoclusters as heterogeneous catalysts. Furthermore, based on this understanding, we showed that metal nanocluster-loaded catalysts with appropriate pretreatment exhibit higher activity as electrochemical/photoelectrochemical catalysts compared to conventional catalysts. These findings are expected to make a significant contribution toward further catalytic applications using metal nanoclusters with more diverse metal species, number of constituent atoms, and geometric structures, as well as their assemblies.