A reliable method to design site-isolated metal catalysts is through the synthesis of intermetallic bulk compounds where a small number of active atoms are isolated in an inert matrix of a second metal.
Unlike alloys, intermetallics have long range periodic atomic order and are more likely resistant to surface segregation effects making them an ideal system for defining the nuclearity (size) and composition (binary versus ternary) of the active site.
We will demonstrate carefully chosen intermetallic systems enable the most rigorously defined metal-based active site known in heterogeneous catalysis (A bold statement for sure, but at the end of this presentation, we hope you will agree!).
