Correlating Catalyst Structure and Activity at the Nanoscale

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Heterogeneous catalysts are commonly applied to enhance chemical reactions. Their performance is largely determined by catalyst structure and composition. These properties are however intrinsically variable at the nanoscale. Traditional bulk‐scale characterization tools often fail to capture the structure‐activity relationship at this scale. The development of fluorescence based assays has enabled catalytic activity mapping at the level of single catalytic turnovers, allowing catalyst activity to be investigated beyond the single particle level. Nonetheless, interpretation of these insights remains challenging without matching local structural information. This has resulted in increased efforts to develop approaches that correlate super‐resolution fluorescence with electron microscopy. In this focus review, a concise overview of currently available approaches is provided, followed by some case studies in which correlative nanoscale structure‐activity investigations of (photo)catalyst materials were performed.
A thorough understanding of the catalyst structure‐activity relationship at the smallest possible length scales is required for intelligent improvement of catalysts. Such nanometer‐resolved investigations are enabled by combined fluorescence and electron microscopy. This review discusses different experimental approaches and insights obtained through their application.