Dr. Botao Qiao

The catalytic hydrogenation of nitroarenes is an environmentally benign technology for the production of anilines, which are key intermediates for manufacturing agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and dyes. Most of the precious metal catalysts, however, suffer from low chemoselectivity when one or more reducible groups are present in a nitroarene molecule. Herein we report FeO_x-supported platinum single-atom and pseudo-single-atom structures as highly active, chemoselective and reusable catalysts for hydrogenation of a variety of substituted nitroarenes. For hydrogenation of 3-nitrostyrene, the catalyst yields a TOF of ~1,500 h⁻¹, 20-fold higher than the best result reported in literature, and a selectivity to 3-aminostyrene close to 99%, the best ever achieved over platinum group metals. The superior performance can be attributed to the presence of positively charged platinum centres and the absence of Pt–Pt metallic bonding, both of which favour the preferential adsorption of nitro groups.

3 October 2013 in Journal of the American Chemical Society

Journal Article

Remarkable Performance of Ir₁/FeO_x Single-Atom Catalyst in Water Gas Shift Reaction

Jian Lin

Aiqin Wang

Botao Qiao

Xiaoyan Liu

Xiaofeng Yang

Tao Zhang

15 November 2019 in Nature Communications

Journal Article

Atomically dispersed nickel as coke-resistant active sites for methane dry reforming

Mohcin Akri

Shu Zhao

Xiaoyu Li

Ketao Zang

Adam F Lee

Tao Zhang

+18

Dry reforming of methane (DRM) is an attractive route to utilize CO₂ as a chemical feedstock with which to convert CH₄ into valuable syngas and simultaneously mitigate both greenhouse gases. Ni-based DRM catalysts are promising due to their high activity and low cost, but suffer from poor stability due to coke formation which has hindered their commercialization. Herein, we report that atomically dispersed Ni single atoms, stabilized by interaction with Ce-doped hydroxyapatite, are highly active and coke-resistant catalytic sites for DRM. Experimental and computational studies reveal that isolated Ni atoms are intrinsically coke-resistant due to their unique ability to only activate the first C-H bond in CH₄, thus avoiding methane deep decomposition into carbon. This discovery offers new opportunities to develop large-scale DRM processes using earth abundant catalysts.

16 January 2019 in Nature Communications

Journal Article

Non defect-stabilized thermally stable single-atom catalyst

Rui Lang

Wei Xi

Jin-Cheng Liu

Yi-Tao Cui

Tianbo Li

Tao Zhang

+13

Surface-supported isolated atoms in single-atom catalysts (SACs) are usually stabilized by diverse defects. The fabrication of high-metal-loading and thermally stable SACs remains a formidable challenge due to the difficulty of creating high densities of underpinning stable defects. Here we report that isolated Pt atoms can be stabilized through a strong covalent metal-support interaction (CMSI) that is not associated with support defects, yielding a high-loading and thermally stable SAC by trapping either the already deposited Pt atoms or the PtO₂units vaporized from nanoparticles during high-temperature calcination. Experimental and computational modeling studies reveal that iron oxide reducibility is crucial to anchor isolated Pt atoms. The resulting high concentrations of single atoms enable specific activities far exceeding those of conventional nanoparticle catalysts. This non defect-stabilization strategy can be extended to non-reducible supports by simply doping with iron oxide, thus paving a new way for constructing high-loading SACs for diverse industrially important catalytic reactions.

About Me

Prof. Botao Qiao graduated from Shanxi University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Science degree and from the Lanzhou Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, in 2008 with a Doctor of Science degree. From April 2008 to May 2011, he conducted postdoctoral research at the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics. After leaving the position in June 2011, he stayed in the group and is now a researcher and doctoral supervisor. From March 2012 to March 2015, he visited Arizona State University and conducted collaborative research. He is mainly engaged in the design, preparation, and characterization of supported highly dispersed metal catalysts, especially the research and development of sub-nano and single-atom catalysts. He has published more than 70 research papers in top international journals and mainstream catalysis journals such as Nat Chem (1), Chem (1), Sci Advan (1), J Am Chem Soc (2), Nat Commun (7), Angew Chem Int. Ed (10), ACS Catal (5), J Catal, Chin J Catal, Appl Catal, etc. He has been invited to write reviews for Chem Rev and Angew Chem, among others. He won the first China Catalysis Rookie Award, currently serves on the Young Editorial Board of the Chinese Journal of Catalysis and the Editorial Board of the Acta Physico-Chimica Sinica, and was selected as one of the “Xingliao Young Talents”.

Dr. Botao Qiao

Dr. Botao Qiao

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