Metal Nanoclusters Catalyzing Organic Transformations-Synergistic Effects

Metal nanoclusters consist of an ultra-small metal kernel and organic ligands on the surface. They possess diversified metal-ligand coordination modes and generally display catalytic properties that are distinct from those of the homogeneous and heterogeneous metal catalysts, thus offering considerable potential for application in the field of catalytic organic transformations. Moreover, metal nanoclusters have well-defined compositions and atomically precise structures, which are beneficial for revealing the relationship between structures and catalytic performance. Therefore, metal nanoclusters have been employed as a model catalyst to ascertain the synergistic activation sites and to investigate the catalytic reaction mechanism from both theoretical and experimental perspectives. This review focuses on the synergistic catalysis of metal nanoclusters in organic transformations. We discuss two aspects of this topic: i) construction of metal-metal synergistic activation sites for catalysis; ii) construction of metal-ligand synergistic activation sites for catalysis. The summary and outlook concerning future opportunities of metal nanocluster in catalyzing organic transformations are presented at the end.