Catalysis by Precious Metals, Past and Future

Dear Colleagues,

“Shiny, malleable, and resistant to corrosion”—that is the first obvious definition of precious metals, to which expensive and scarce can be added. Their use in jewellery, trade, and arts has led to a new era in which metal catalytic potential has been discovered, and, nowadays, precious metals are key players in the chemical industry. Platinum, alone or in combination with rhodium, was the first precious metal to participate catalytically in the sulfuric and nitric acid production processes. Gold, in return, has entered the group of catalytically active metals in the last few decades. The use of all those metals, in their bulk form, was successively limited due to their high cost and the highly dispersed and supported metal nanoparticles that appeared on the scene. The use of supports improves the dispersion of the precious metals, thus reducing their quantity and decreasing the cost of the final catalyst and also preventing metal sintering, loss of catalytically active sites, and deactivation. Both support and precious metals cooperate in the formation of an efficient catalytic machine. The precious metal-support interaction depends on many factors, like precious metal contents, the nature of support and metal, employed preparation methods, and also metal nanoparticles morphology. The addition of small amounts of noble metals into the formulation of other transition metals catalysts and the use of bimetallic noble metal catalysts are also quite attractive, since they can enhance the precious metal-support interaction. Thus, the diversity of supported precious metal catalysts is reflected in their versatility and enlarges their current and future horizons.

This Special Issue will reveal the importance of precious metals catalysis and will be focused on mono- and bi-metallic formulations, on any supported catalysts, and on the promoted catalytic effect of others transition metals catalysts using the precious metal effect. The application of precious metals in diverse reactions of interest, either homogeneous or heterogeneous, and complete studies of the preparation, characterization, and structuring of the supported precious metal catalysts, are welcomed, as well as operando and/or kinetics studies of mechanisms and catalytic performance.

Prof. Marcela Martinez Tejada
Prof. Svetlana Ivanova
Guest Editors

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