Atomic level control over surface species via a molecular precursor approach: Isolated Cu(I) s ites and Cu nanoparticles supported on mesoporous silica

There is a growing interest in the preparation of catalysts with well-defined and isolated sites, as such systems are ideally suited for structure-function investigations.1 Recent studies indicate that atom-ically dispersed metals on high surface area silica materials are effective catalysts.2-4 Thus, an important goal in catalysis research is the development of synthetic methods that provide atomic-level control over the nature of catalytic sites, with formation of isolated single sites or homogeneously distributed and more complicated structures (bimetallic sites, clusters, nanoparticles, etc.) providing new and improved catalysts.1-4 It is believed that low-temperature approaches will be most effective for generating tailored structures because of the metastable nature of many of the desired structures.1 Supported Cu-containing catalysts have been studied for a number of industrially relevant reactions,5-8 but little effort has been devoted to the generation of tailored sites. The introductio