Growing Nanoscale Model Surfaces to Enable Correlation of Catalytic Behavior Across Dissimilar Reaction Environments

Development of catalytic materials that can effectively facilitate currently challenging chemical transformations requires enhanced understanding of reaction mechanisms and insight into the structure and composition of optimal active site geometries. New methods for translating fundamental insights obtained in highly controlled environments to industrially viable catalysts that function under dramatically different operating conditions can accelerate the catalyst design process. This Perspective highlights the application of noble metal nanoparticles with well-defined surfaces as nanoscale experimental models that open up opportunities to correlate fundamental reactivity and catalytic performance across reaction environments of increasing complexity. Recent advances in synthetic control over both nanoparticle shape and composition allow for the generation of specific active site geometries of interest in materials that can be stable in both ultrahigh vacuum and elevated pressure gas-phase environments and potentially in solution-phase and electrocatalytic systems as well. Coupled with significant recent developments in surface science techniques, including operando spectroscopy methods, the use of nanoscale model surfaces represents a promising approach to establishing principles of reactivity and catalytic behavior in these diverse environments.