Title: Molecular Insights into Metal-Support Interactions for Catalyst Design

A central research goal in the Velian group is to create next-generation single atom catalysts poised to harness the cooperativity between the active site and chemically non-innocent supports. To emulate defect sites in inorganic heterogeneous catalysts in a controlled fashion, we embed well-defined active sites on the surface of clusters and 2D nanosheets.

The first part of this seminar will introduce a class of atomically precise nanoclusters distinguished by the presence of discrete active sites that engage dynamically with the non-innocent metal chalcogenide cluster support, and with substrates. Together with their scalable syntheses, solution processability and their ease of characterization using molecular methods, this family of nanoclusters provide atom level insights into the metal/support interface, and how the ensuing cooperativity can be harnessed to dramatically alter catalytic activity.

The second part of the talk will introduce an orthogonal approach to catalyst engineering, in which the basic principles of organometallic-phosphine chemistry are harnessed to anchor single site active sites on the surface of two-dimensional black phosphorus nanosheets. Molecular synthetic and characterization strategies are leveraged to probe the bonding and functionality of the modified nanosheets.