Synergistic Catalysis With Bimetallic Nanoparticles: A Pathway to Higher Efficiency Sustainability and Stability

Although bimetallic heterogeneous catalysts are widely used in several industries, understanding the active components at the atomic and molecular levels and their intricate structure is quite challenging. Through the analysis of various bimetallic systems, their differing structural properties, along with catalytic efficiencies, an understanding of the structure-reactivity relationships for heterogeneous bimetallic catalysts can be developed which can be utilized to enhance catalyst technology. This review will focus on the geometric and electronic structures of the three representative types of bimetallic catalysts (bimetallic binuclear sites, bimetallic nanoclusters, and nanoparticles) while providing details of their synthesis routes and characterization methods that have been achieved over the last decade. The roles of catalysis for supported bimetallic binuclear sites, bimetallic nanoclusters, and nanoparticles in a number of significant reactions will be presented. Finally, the gaps in research with an emphasis on supported bimetallic catalysts will be discussed along with broader expectations on the next advances in heterogeneous catalysis from a fundamental and applicative point of view. Bimetallic nanoparticles (NPs) are changing catalysis by combining two metals to create effects that are better than those of systems with only one metal.