Control of metal-support interactions in heterogeneous catalysts to enhance activity and selectivity

Metal nanoparticles stabilized on a support material catalyse many major industrial reactions. Metal-support interactions in these nanomaterials can have a substantial influence on the catalysis, making metal-support interaction modulation one of the few tools able to enhance catalytic performance. This topic has received much attention in recent years, however, a systematic rationalization of the field is lacking due to the great diversity in catalysts, reactions and modification strategies. In this review, we cover and categorize the recent progress in metal-support interaction tuning strategies to enhance catalytic performance for various reactions. Furthermore, we quantify the productivity enhancements resulting from metal-support interaction control that have been achieved in C1 chemistry in recent years. Our analysis shows that up to fifteen-fold productivity enhancement has been achieved, and that metal-support interaction is most impactful for metal nanoparticles smaller than four nanometres. These findings demonstrate the importance of metal-support interaction to improve performance in catalysis. Methods to control the performance of heterogeneous catalysts are extremely relevant to the success of industrial processes. This review provides a rationalization of the effects that metal support interactions have on the reactivity of different catalytic systems, emphasizing strategies to tune such effects.