Addressing a Burning Issue: Complete combustion of methane is required in order to avoid the unproductive emission of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. Palladium catalysts can help to promote complete combustion, but high-temperature operating conditions also promote aggregation of catalyst particles (“sintering”) that lowers their surface area and overall activity. Cargnello et al. (p. 713 ; see the Perspective by Farrauto ) report that cerium oxide–coated Pd catalyst particles could be fully dispersed on an alumina surface prepared with a hydrophobic coating. This treatment resisted Pd sintering up to temperatures of 800°C, and also enabled complete combustion of methane to occur at temperatures as low as 400°C.

Depletion of crude oil resources and environmental concerns have driven a worldwide research on alternative processes for the production of commodity chemicals. Fischer–Tropsch synthesis is a process for flexible production of key chemicals from synthesis gas originating from non-petroleum-based sources. Although the use of iron-based catalysts would be preferred over the widely used cobalt, manufacturing methods that prevent their fast deactivation because of sintering, carbon deposition and phase changes have proven challenging. Here we present a strategy to produce highly dispersed iron carbides embedded in a matrix of porous carbon. Very high iron loadings (>40 wt %) are achieved while maintaining an optimal dispersion of the active iron carbide phase when a metal organic framework is used as catalyst precursor. The unique iron spatial confinement and the absence of large iron particles in the obtained solids minimize catalyst deactivation, resulting in high active and stable operation.