Controlled nitridation of tantalum (oxy)nitride nanoparticles towards optimized metal-support interactions with gold nanocatalysts

The electron regulation on supports can vary metal-support interactions with loaded metals in heterogeneous catalysis. In this paper, a facile Sr2+-mediated ionothermal route was introduced to control the nitridation degree in tantalum (oxy)nitrides, resulting in varied electronic properties and optimized interactions with gold nanocatalysts. A new mechanism was proposed that the formation of SrTa4O11 intermediates facilitated the replacement of O by N in controlled nitridation, and more importantly avoided undesired over-nitridation. As expected, the TaON support with defined nitridation promoted electronic metal-support interactions to generate Au delta- species, which was highly active for the thermal hydrogenation of nitrobenzene due to the moderated adsorption and effective activation on Au delta- in Au/TaON. This work elucidated the optimized metal-support interactions achieved on controllably nitridated supports, opening up new opportunities for the development of efficient nanocatalysts.