Dynamic Control Over Heterogeneous Catalysis in Sol and Gel-Matrix

Abstract

Life on Earth depends on catalysis. Chemical transformations found in biological systems are too sluggish and complex to occur spontaneously in ambient conditions. Thus, nature has developed a myriad of enzymes to perform many catalytic processes essential for life. Indeed, it is widely believed that life began with the emergence of a self-replicating RNA catalyst; the beginning of life is dependent on the emergence and evolution of catalysis. Thus, we can say catalysis is as old as life itself. However, the term catalysis was coined by Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1835, which deals with the rate of chemical reactions. Catalysis has drawn enormous attention from the perspective of academic research and industrial applications, as catalysis plays a crucial role in the production of 90% of commercial products and contributes to almost 30% of global GDP. More specifically, heterogeneous catalysts capable of working under physiological conditions serve as an economic, more sustainable, and greener method to support the growing population. Toward this, inspired by nature, many supramolecular self-assembled systems have been developed to perform highly complicated transformations at unprecedented rates and with very high selectivity. One such example is a self-assembled monolayer-protected nanoparticle system, which is an organic-inorganic hybrid system. These kinds of systems show good promises toward catalysis, molecular recognition, adaptive sensing, and signalling. Notably, all these physical properties come from the organic layer rather than inorganic support because of their ability to concentrate small molecules over them by weak hydrophobic interaction and sometimes multivalent electrostatic interactions. These kinds of surface interactions are also important in understanding the reaction-diffusion processes, which are responsible for different patterns and spots found in nature. Understanding these dynamic weak interactions can also be useful in developing industrially important chemical reactors, which can be modulated towards various transformations spatially as well as temporally at will