Immobilization of Ultrafine Metal Nanoparticles to High-Surface-Area Materials and Their Catalytic Applications

Exciting new opportunities are emerging in the field of catalysis on the basis of the controlled integration of ultrafine metal nanoparticles (UMNPs) and high-surface-area materials, providing the ability to create advanced nanocatalysts to investigate and optimize a broad range of catalytic processes. The immobilization of UMNPs to high-surface-area materials with nanoporous or two-dimensional nanolayer structures provides great advantages for catalytic applications in terms of controlling the nucleation and growth of UMNPs with a clean surface, protecting them from aggregation and harvesting the synergistic effects between the UMNPs and the supports. This review summarizes recent progress in the field of immobilized UMNPs by focusing on their preparation and catalytic applications.