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Spectroscopic studies and theoretical calculations of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction establish that reaction rates depend on the amount of charge stored in the electrocatalyst, and not on the applied potential.

Proving sustainable chemical plastic recycling must rely on realistic feedstocks and sustainability-driven catalyst design. Here, the authors report titania-supported Ru–Ni alloy nanoparticles achieving up to 55% liquid (C6 to C45) products for low-carbon and profitable polyethylene hydrogenolysis and determine a metric for sustainable product distributions.

Catalytic oxybromination is an important strategy for the upgrade of methane. Here, Pérez-Ramírez and co-workers employ operando photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy as well as kinetic analyses and molecular simulations to unravel the complex reaction mechanism.

The energies of the species in a given reaction network are linked by linear scaling relationships, limiting the design of catalysts with improved activity and selectivity. In this Perspective, López and Pérez-Ramírez discuss strategies to circumvent such scaling relationships.

Ni-based CO₂ reduction electrocatalysts have been reported to produce multicarbon products up to C₆ but with limited selectivity. Here the reaction mechanism of the process is elucidated. Consequently, pulsed potential electrolysis and electrolyte deuteration are respectively employed to enhance the selectivity of branched hydrocarbons and increase the total hydrocarbon Faradaic efficiency to 22%.

This study presents a nuclear magnetic resonance-based method to determine local structure and bonding of Pt single-atom catalysts.

The restructuring of carbon-based supports under reaction conditions limits catalyst stability for vinyl chloride synthesis. Here, the authors report that hydrogen chloride generates defect sites on carbon nitride supports, promoting acetylene polymerization and accelerating catalyst deactivation.

The importance of optimizing the contact between catalyst particles, hydrogen and plastic melt in polyolefin chemical recycling has been overlooked, leading to suboptimal performance. The authors develop a criterion based on the dimensionless power number to optimize catalyst effectiveness. Stirring conditions can now be selected to treat commercial-grade polyethylene and polypropylene.

Developing efficient catalysts for syngas-based higher alcohol synthesis (HAS) remains challenging. Here the authors successfully demonstrate an active learning strategy by integrating Bayesian optimization into experimental workflows to accelerate the design of highly active and stable FeCoCuZr catalysts for HAS.

The technological relevance of zeolites, the desire to improve their efficiency and the inexhaustible synthetic options to tailor their properties have triggered a permanent evolution of this superclass of materials. Two zeolite nanosystems prepared by distinct approaches reflect this and offer hope for new applications.

A general versatile approach combining wet-chemistry impregnation and two-step annealing is devised for the scalable synthesis of a library of ultra-high-density single-atom catalysts with drastically enhanced reactivity.

Heterogeneous geminal-atom catalysts, which pair single-atom sites in specific coordination and spatial proximity, offer a new avenue for the sustainable manufacture of fine chemicals.

Carbon is a key support for metal-catalyzed acetylene hydrochlorination to vinyl chloride but its role remains elusive. Here, the authors, by means of operando spectroscopy, demonstrate the co-catalytic function of neighboring carbon and isolated metal atoms, constituting the active ensemble.

Herein, the authors develop a transformer-based language model to automate synthesis protocol extraction from heterogeneous catalysis literature. Embracing digital advances in catalysis demands a shift in data reporting norms, and they offer guidelines for writing protocols, which improve machine readability.

Efficiently and selectively activating the C–H bonds within the light alkanes of natural gas is a challenge that must be overcome if we are to make the most of Earth's abundant reserves. An oxybromination method that functionalizes methane under mild conditions has now been developed and vanadium phosphate was identified as the best catalyst for this reaction.

The performance of nanostructured metal catalysts in acetylene hydrochlorination is governed by an interplay of nuclearity, coordination and host effects. The central activity descriptor is identified as the acetylene adsorption energy.

The conversions of methanol or methyl chloride over zeolite catalysts are promising processes to produce valuable hydrocarbons, but their mechanisms are still not fully understood. Now these are evaluated using operando photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy, which enables the direct observation of elusive intermediates such as methyl radicals or ketene.

Cu-based catalysts have dominated CO₂ electroreduction as a result of their unique ability to produce C₂ or C₃ products, while Ni has largely been excluded due to poisoning by intermediate CO. Here, inorganic Ni oxygenate-derived electrocatalysts with polarized Ni^𝛿+ sites can produce multicarbon products, including C₃ to C₆ hydrocarbons.

Assembling multicomponent catalysts to harness synergic effects is challenging. Now, flame spray pyrolysis permits the synthesis of ternary Pd-In₂O₃-ZrO₂ catalysts with an optimal architecture and an enriched density of oxygen vacancies for maximal performance in CO₂-based methanol synthesis.

The ideal metal selection and atomic-level arrangement for catalysts in CO₂ hydrogenation are still uncertain. Here, copper is identified as the most effective promoter for enhancing ZnZrO_x catalysts when precisely structured into CuZn ensembles, offering new insights for designing superior catalysts for CO₂-based methanol synthesis.

Palladium-promoted indium oxide is a catalyst with potential to realize the large-scale conversion of CO₂ into the commodity methanol. This work focuses on the low-cost nickel as an alternative appealing promoter, revealing the atomic-level catalyst design unlocking maximal selectivity and activity.

Carbons are indispensable as supports for metal-based catalysts in polyvinyl chloride manufacture via acetylene hydrochlorination. In this work, the acetylene interaction, tunable through adjusting microporosity and oxygen sites is identified as central activity and stability descriptor.

Generating and quantifying the effect of the promoter speciation in heterogeneous catalysts is very challenging. Here, the authors show that the precise palladium atoms architecture reached by controlled co-precipitation overcomes selectivity and stability limitations associated with palladium nanoparticles for CO₂-based methanol synthesis.

Zeolite catalysts are industrially important, but may be deactivated by coking. Here, the authors demonstrate the effectiveness of top-down demetallation approaches in controlling mesopore formation, using a range of techniques to probe the resulting structures and assess the effects on catalyst lifetime.

Understanding the nature of complex zeolite particles, used as catalysts in industrial reactors, is vital for their further development. Now, an integrated approach to visualizing granules of a hierarchical MFI-type zeolite, on length scales from nanometres to millimetres, is reported.

In heterogeneous catalytic processes the Arrhenius parameters are often found to be interrelated (compensation phenomenon). Using state-of-the-art experiments and density functional theory, the origin of compensation is studied. A similar dependence on the rate-limiting surface-coverage term is found for both apparent activation energy and prefactor terms, which can be translated into surface configurational entropy contributions.

Platinum nanoparticles have been neglected as a catalyst for acetylene hydrochlorination due to their limited activity. Here, the authors show that nanostructuring to the single-atom level renders platinum on carbonaceous supports a superior catalyst for this important industrial process.

As of yet, no clear structure–performance descriptors have been developed to tune the catalytic activity of zeolitic methanol-to-olefin catalysts. Now it has been shown that introducing Lewis acidity into Brønsted acidic zeolites boosts their performance. Although Brønsted acidity is found to define propylene selectivity, Lewis acidity is responsible for prolonging lifetime.

The development of efficient catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion is hindered by a lack of rationalization. Here, authors use microfabricated electrodes to study the birth of active sites around interfaces in multicomponent copper-based catalysts during carbon dioxide reduction.

Developing robust catalysts for alkyne semi-hydrogenation remains a challenge. Here, the authors introduce a scalable protocol to prepare crystal phase and orientation controlled Pd₃S nanoparticles supported on carbon nitride, exhibiting unparalleled semi-hydrogenation performance due to a high density of active and selective ensembles.

Heterogeneous catalysis will continue to be a fundamental pillar of chemicals manufacturing. The development of sustainable catalytic technologies requires a multidimensional approach, bridging atomic-level design with planetary impact considerations. Prioritizing sustainability metrics, industry partnerships and circular economy principles as well as raising public awareness are crucial.

Sensitive and isomer-specific analytical tools detect elusive intermediates and reveal reaction mechanisms. Photoelectron photoion coincidence spectroscopy, introduced in 1966, now serves as a reaction microscope, identifies intermediates, and delineates gaseous and surface-confined processes in heterogeneous catalysis.

Controlling the hybridization of single atoms in suitable host materials opens unique opportunities for catalyst design, but equally faces many challenges. Here, we highlight emerging directions from the last, highly productive, decade in single-atom catalysis and identify frontiers for future research.

Green acetylene production, utilizing renewable feedstocks and decarbonized electricity, can leverage both traditional and emerging technologies. This Perspective showcases how a transitional trajectory to green acetylene could rekindle interest in acetylene as a versatile building block for advancing sustainability in the chemical industry.

Heterogeneous single-cluster catalysts comprising atomically precise metal clusters stabilized on supports offer exciting prospects for delivering novel reactivity patterns in chemical transformations. This Review examines the progress in controlling cluster environments and understanding the performance of single-cluster catalysts.

Palladium atoms hosted in exfoliated graphitic carbon nitride display improved activity, selectivity and stability compared to state-of-the-art homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysts for Suzuki coupling reactions.

Hierarchically organized zeolites are materials retaining the crystalline order and associated functionality of bulk zeolites while also integrating a multilevel pore network. Here, the authors review the raft of techniques applied to characterize their crystal, pore and active site structures.

The use of data science tools in catalysis research has experienced a surge in the past 10–15 years. This Review provides a holistic overview and categorization of the field across the various approaches and subdisciplines in catalysis.

Stability is a key property for any catalyst. The description of stability, however, varies in the literature depending on the subfield. In this Review the authors present a systematic literature analysis aimed at identifying generalized deactivation modes and their prevalence in different areas of catalysis to offer a comprehensive descriptive framework of catalyst deactivation.

This Review summarizes how distinct approaches to nanostructural engineering enhance features that determine the selectivity and stability of catalysts.

Low-nuclearity catalysts incorporating supported metal atoms or small clusters on appropriately tailored carriers are growing in diversity and have great potential in catalysis. This Review examines progress in their synthesis and characterization towards the atomically precise design of high-performing new architectures.

Phosphate-derived nickel catalysts enable access to multicarbon products via CO₂ electroreduction, but it remains unclear how operating conditions influence product formation. Here, refined ¹H NMR spectroscopy protocols are introduced and combined with an automated NMR data processing routine, enabling quantification of carbon product formation as a function of various parameters.