91AV

Nanocatalysis represents an exciting subfield in nanoscience and nanotechnology which involves the use of nanomaterials in the research fields in physics, chemistry, biology, medicine and particularly catalysis. They are defined as substances in the shape of spherical dots, rods, thin plates, or any irregular shape with a cross section of less than 100 nm. Even subnano-sized materials (nanoclusters, diatoms, single atoms) are preferably used as catalysts for a wide variety of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Along with significant advances in nanomaterial design and synthesis assisted by machine learning, in-situ/ex-situ characterization techniques, and computational chemistry, the past several decades have witnessed a flood of research activities in this rapidly evolving area with most of the studies focusing on the effects of size, shape, chemical composition and morphology on catalytic properties and performance.  

Nanocatalysts can potentially bridge the gap between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts, and offer better promise for activity, selectivity, stability, efficiency, atom economy and reusability. By controlling the size, shape, spatial distribution, surface composition, and electronic structures, the properties of nanocatalysts could be tweaked for new applications in chemical reactions. Interestingly, nanocatalysts have a wide range of applications including environmental and automobile pollution control, renewable energy, alternative fuels, polymerization, and design of novel catalytic processes and reactions. The types of nanocatalysts include carbon nano tubes, nanowires, nano composites, nano porous materials, low-dimensional materials (including 2D materials) monometallic, bimetallic and oxide nano catalysts. Broadly, the three classes of reaction domains namely thermal catalysis, electrocatalysis and photocatalysis, are going to be highlighted to showcase research directions towards environmental and energy related challenges.  

This special themed collection aims to provide a platform to showcase the recent progress and challenges in the field of nanocatalysis. The way forward and novel techniques to overcome activity-stability and activity鈥搒electivity trade-off are provisioned to broaden the scope.  

We invite submissions (Research and Review articles only) that contribute to the advancement of knowledge in the broad field of nanocatalysis, with particular emphasis on the following broad topics. To keep the focus on nanocatalysis, research articles without application to nanocatalytic reactions will not be considered for this themed collection.  

• Synthesis, characterization and reactions in thermal catalysis, photocatalysis, electrocatalysis 
• Automotive and air pollution nanocatalysis 
• Structure-activity relations, confinement effects, dynamic evolution of active sites  
• Mechanism and catalytic cycles of nanocatalysts 
• Theoretical modelling (First-principles based DFT calculations, catalyst screening and exploring new and alternative catalysts by the use of machine learning) on nanocatalysis 
• Process and product development involving nanocatalysts

This call for papers is open for the following article types: 

• Full papers
• Reviews

Please quote Nanocatalysis in the 鈥淭hemed issues鈥� section of the submission form and add a 鈥淣ote to the Editor鈥� that this is from the open call.