New directions in catalyst design for energy and environmental applications

In the last decade we have faced extraordinary advances in nanostructured catalytic materials. These progresses support a new vision for nanoscale-inspired design and synthesis of industrially important catalysts. Heterogeneous transition metal catalysts are nanoparticles with sizes in the 1−10 nm range, that nowadays can be synthesize with uniform size and shape. This precise structural and morphological control, coupled with the possibility to modulate the metal-support interactions, allowed us to have a step change increase in the activity, selectivity and stability of many industrially and environmentally important catalysts. In this context, renewable energy conversion is the real challenge of the 21^st century. The photosplitting of water to H₂ and O₂, the photoreforming of renewable oxygenates and the photocatalytic CO₂ reduction to solar fuels by water oxidation are the challenging tasks, and research is focused on using chemically stable nanostructured inorganic catalysts.