Construction of Nanoreactors Combining Two-Dimensional Hexagonal Boron Nitride (h-BN) Coating with Pt/Al2O3 Catalyst toward Efficient Catalysis for CO Oxidation

In this work, a nanoreactor combining layers of facile traditional two-dimensional (2D) material, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN, which often called the white graphene) with Pt/Al2O3 catalyst was designed to exhibit higher stability, activity, and selectivity in automobile exhaust treatment. Characterization revealed that h-BN does coat on the surface of platinum and forms a distinct Pt@h-BN/Al2O3 core–shell nanostructure. This as-prepared catalyst possesses good thermal stability and selectivity, because of the excellent high-temperature tolerance and the multidefected structure of the h-BN shell; that is, small molecules such as CO and O2 can easily intercalate into the nanoreactor, while large molecules such as propylene are blocked out. Meanwhile, the intercalated reactants can achieve the conversion of CO to CO2 faster (ΔT100 = 20 °C) with the confinement effect. The study indicates that constructing a nanoscale confined environment with two-dimensional (2D) coating can enhance the performance of the catalyst in multiple aspects and simultaneously provide a good example for designing nanostructured catalysts with multifaceted improvement.