Palladium catalysed heck reactions and photoassisted catalytic reduction of nitrogen oxide by silver: the role of supported metal particles, small clusters and molecular complexes

This work investigated the role of supported molecular, active metal centres and small clusters versus metal particles in several catalytic heterogeneous reactions. It shows how palladium leaching in the Heck reaction took place not only by oxidative addition but also by complexation with sigma-donor ligands; the photoassisted selective catalytic reduction of NO by hydrocarbons over silver on alumina catalysts showed a positive effect of light on the conversion of NO, when the silver species absorbed light in the UV region. Aluminium fluoride as non-oxidic support was characterised and vanadium was successfully grafted as molecular complex starting from [VO(iOPr)3].