Recently, State Key Laboratory of Catalysis in DICP has made a new breakthrough in confined catalysis of 2D atomic crystals, the related results were published on Nano Letters, 2015, 15, 3616-3623.

In recent years, the research group of Qiang Fu and Xinhe Bao used the home-built PEEM/LEEM and scientific equipment in Berkeley National Laboratory to carry out in-situ research on graphene/metal interface. They found that the 2D space formed between graphene and metal can be used as catalytic nanoreactor, and revealed the confined effect of graphene to surface catalytic reactions, putting forward the concept of “Catalysis under cover” (Angew Chem Int Ed 2012, 51, 4856; PNAS 2014, 111,17023; Chin J Catal 2015, 36, 517). Recently, they found that h-BN have stronger confined effect to surface catalytic reactions compared to graphene. They collaborated with Minshu Chen’s group in XMU to study the high-pressure CO oxidation reaction on the surface of h-BN/Pt(111), and confirmed the h-BN can promote the catalytic reaction of Pt (Nano Lett 2015, 15, 3616).This work confirms that the h-BN cover can be used as a promoter to tune molecule–metal interaction and enhance the metal-catalyzed reactions.

This work was financially supported by NNSF, 973 project, MOF, CAS and iChEM.