Molten Sn solvent expands liquid metal catalysis

Junma Tang (), Nastaran Meftahi, Andrew J. Christofferson, Jing Sun, Ruohan Yu, Md. Arifur Rahim, Jianbo Tang, Guangzhao Mao, Torben Daeneke, Richard B. Kaner, Salvy P. Russo and Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh ()
Additional contact information
Junma Tang: The University of Sydney
Nastaran Meftahi: Swinburne University of Technology
Andrew J. Christofferson: RMIT University
Jing Sun: Xi’an Jiaotong University
Ruohan Yu: University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Md. Arifur Rahim: The University of Sydney
Jianbo Tang: University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Guangzhao Mao: University of New South Wales (UNSW)
Torben Daeneke: RMIT University
Richard B. Kaner: University of California, Los Angeles
Salvy P. Russo: RMIT University
Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh: The University of Sydney

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Regulating favorable assemblies of metallic atoms in the liquid state provides promise for catalyzing various chemical reactions. Expanding the selection of metallic solvents, especially those with unique properties and low cost, enables access to distinctive fluidic atomic structures on the surface of liquid alloys and offers economic feasibility. Here, Sn solvent, as a low-cost commodity, supports unique atomic assemblies at the interface of molten SnIn0.1034Cu0.0094, which are highly selective for H2 synthesis from hydrocarbons. Atomistic simulations reveal that distinctive adsorption patterns with hexadecane can be established with Cu transiently reaching the interfacial layer, ensuring an energy-favorable route for H2 generation. Experiments with a natural oil as feedstock underscore this approach’s performance, producing 1.2 × 10−4 mol/min of H2 with 5.0 g of catalyst at ~93.0% selectivity while offering reliable scalability and durability at 260 °C. This work presents an alternative avenue of tuning fluidic atomic structures, broadening the applications of liquid metals.

Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56222-0 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-56222-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().