RESUMEN
The scientific community has found immense difficulty to focus on the generation of chiral intermetallics compared to the chiral molecular structure, probably due to the technical difficulty in producing them as no general controlled protocol is available. Herein, using a conventional metal flux technique, we have discovered a new ternary intermetallic Co3Ni3Ga8, substituting Co at the Ni sublattice in a highly symmetric Ni3Ga4 (Ia3Ì d). Co3Ni3Ga8 crystallizes in the I4132 space group, a Sohncke type, and can host the chiral structure. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a ternary intermetallic crystallizing in this space group. The chiral structure of Co3Ni3Ga8 is comprehensively mapped by various techniques such as single-crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD), synchrotron powder XRD, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and theoretically studied using density functional theory. The discovery of this chiral compound can inspire the researchers to design hidden ternary chiral intermetallics to study the exotic electrical and magnetic properties.
RESUMEN
Intermetallic compounds (IMCs) composed of transition metals and post-transition metals function as superior heterogeneous catalysts in comparison to their monometallic and bimetallic alloy counterparts. Rendering IMCs in their nanomaterial iterations further enhances their efficiency. Herein, we demonstrate the role of PdIn as well-dispersed intermetallic nanoparticles (IMNPs) for the semihydrogenation of phenylacetylene selectively to styrene at ambient conditions. Higher selectivity of PdIn was explained with the help DOS calculations. We have explored the role of a few well-known silica-based supports such as SBA-15 and MCM-41, providing insight into how they affect catalysis. As an additional support we have explored previously reported JNC-1, a mesoporous carbon material obtained via a templated strategy using SBA-15. PdIn supported on SBA-15 and JNC-1 displayed the best dispersion, while also exhibiting the most catalytic activity due to the unique nature of the porous structure.