TY - JOUR
T1 - Molten Sn solvent expands liquid metal catalysis
AU - Tang, Junma
AU - Meftahi, Nastaran
AU - Christofferson, Andrew J.
AU - Sun, Jing
AU - Yu, Ruohan
AU - Rahim, Md Arifur
AU - Tang, Jianbo
AU - Mao, Guangzhao
AU - Daeneke, Torben
AU - Kaner, Richard B.
AU - Russo, Salvy P.
AU - Kalantar-Zadeh, Kourosh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/1/21
Y1 - 2025/1/21
N2 - Regulating favorable assemblies of metallic atoms in the liquid state provides promise for catalyzing various chemical reactions. Expanding the selection of metallic solvents, especially those with unique properties and low cost, enables access to distinctive fluidic atomic structures on the surface of liquid alloys and offers economic feasibility. Here, Sn solvent, as a low-cost commodity, supports unique atomic assemblies at the interface of molten SnIn0.1034Cu0.0094, which are highly selective for H2 synthesis from hydrocarbons. Atomistic simulations reveal that distinctive adsorption patterns with hexadecane can be established with Cu transiently reaching the interfacial layer, ensuring an energy-favorable route for H2 generation. Experiments with a natural oil as feedstock underscore this approach’s performance, producing 1.2 × 10−4mol/min of H2 with 5.0 g of catalyst at ~93.0% selectivity while offering reliable scalability and durability at 260 °C. This work presents an alternative avenue of tuning fluidic atomic structures, broadening the applications of liquid metals.
AB - Regulating favorable assemblies of metallic atoms in the liquid state provides promise for catalyzing various chemical reactions. Expanding the selection of metallic solvents, especially those with unique properties and low cost, enables access to distinctive fluidic atomic structures on the surface of liquid alloys and offers economic feasibility. Here, Sn solvent, as a low-cost commodity, supports unique atomic assemblies at the interface of molten SnIn0.1034Cu0.0094, which are highly selective for H2 synthesis from hydrocarbons. Atomistic simulations reveal that distinctive adsorption patterns with hexadecane can be established with Cu transiently reaching the interfacial layer, ensuring an energy-favorable route for H2 generation. Experiments with a natural oil as feedstock underscore this approach’s performance, producing 1.2 × 10−4mol/min of H2 with 5.0 g of catalyst at ~93.0% selectivity while offering reliable scalability and durability at 260 °C. This work presents an alternative avenue of tuning fluidic atomic structures, broadening the applications of liquid metals.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85216595697&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0
DO - 10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 39837876
AN - SCOPUS:85216595697
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 16
SP - 907
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 907
ER -