Abstract
Supported gold (Au) nanocatalysts hold great promise for heterogeneous catalysis; however, their practical
application is greatly hampered by poor thermodynamic stability. Herein, a general synthetic strategy is reported where
discrete metal nanoparticles are made resistant to sintering, preserving their catalytic activities in high-temperature oxidation
processes. Taking advantage of the unique coating chemistry of dopamine, sacrificial carbon layers are constructed
on the material surface, stabilizing the supported catalyst. Upon annealing at high temperature under an inert atmosphere,
the interactions between support and metal nanoparticle are dramatically enhanced, while the sacrificial carbon
layers can be subsequently removed through oxidative calcination in air. Owing to the improved metal-support contact
and strengthened electronic interactions, the resulting Au nanocatalysts are resistant to sintering and exhibit excellent
durability for catalytic combustion of propylene at elevated temperatures. Moreover, the facile synthetic strategy can be
extended to the stabilization of other supported catalysts on a broad range of supports, providing a general approach to
enhancing the thermal stability and sintering resistance of supported nanocatalysts.
