Towards stable catalysts by controlling collective properties of supported metal nanoparticles

Supported metal nanoparticles play a pivotal role in areas such as nanoelectronics, energy storage and conversion, and catalysis, but their tendency to grow into larger crystallites is an issue for their stable performance. A strategy based on controlling not only size and composition but also the location of the metal nanoparticles, now reveals the impact of their three-dimensional nanospatial distribution on their catalytic stability. Supported metal nanoparticles play a pivotal role in areas such as nanoelectronics, energy storage/conversion1 and as catalysts for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals2,3,4. However, the tendency of nanoparticles to grow into larger crystallites is an impediment for stable performance5,6. Exemplarily, loss of active surface area by metal particle growth is a major cause of deactivation for supported catalysts7. In specific cases particle growth might be mitigated by tuning the properties of individual nanoparticles, such as size8, composition9 and interaction with the support10. Here we present an alternative strategy based on control over collective properties, revealing the pronounced impact of the three-dimensional nanospatial distribution of metal particles on catalyst stability. We employ silica-supported copper nanoparticles as catalysts for methanol synthesis as a showcase. Achieving near-maximum interparticle spacings, as accessed quantitatively by electron tomography, slows down deactivation up to an order of magnitude compared with a catalyst with a non-uniform nanoparticle distribution, or a reference Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 catalyst. Our approach paves the way towards the rational design of practically relevant catalysts and other nanomaterials with enhanced stability and functionality, for applications such as sensors, gas storage, batteries and solar fuel production.