Researchers at University of California Berkeley in the US have designed a novel material that can catalyse two separate, sequential reactions to produce industrially relevant intermediates in one pot.
They have developed a nanocrystal catalyst that has multiple metal-metal oxide interfaces and can catalyse two different reactions in sequence.
The team assembled platinum nanocubes into a one nanocube-thick monolayer with oleylamine capping agents in between the cubes and transferred onto a flat silica surface.
A second monolayer made of ceria nanocubes spaced with oleic acid was then placed on top to form a bilayer.
UV irradiation removed the capping agents to leave vertical gaps between the stacked nanocrystals, providing a large surface area and clean metal-metal oxide catalytic interfaces.
