Molten Sn solvent expands liquid metal catalysis

Junma Tang; Nastaran Meftahi; Andrew J Christofferson; Jing Sun; Ruohan Yu; Md Arifur Rahim; Jianbo Tang; Guangzhao Mao; Torben Daeneke; Richard B Kaner; Salvy P Russo; Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh

doi:10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0

Molten Sn solvent expands liquid metal catalysis

Nat Commun. 2025 Jan 21;16(1):907. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0.

Authors

Junma Tang^{1

2

3}, Nastaran Meftahi⁴, Andrew J Christofferson^{5

6}, Jing Sun⁷, Ruohan Yu⁸, Md Arifur Rahim^{9

10}, Jianbo Tang^{8

11}, Guangzhao Mao^{8

12}, Torben Daeneke¹³, Richard B Kaner^{14

15}, Salvy P Russo^{5

6}, Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh^{16

17}

Affiliations

¹ School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. [email protected].
² School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. [email protected].
³ School of Chemistry, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China. [email protected].
⁴ Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.
⁵ School of Science, STEM College, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁶ ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
⁷ Centre for Plasma Biomedicine, School of Electrical Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
⁸ School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia.
⁹ School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Monash University, Clayton, Australia.
¹¹ School of Engineering and Research Center for Industries of the Future, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China.
¹² School of Engineering, Institute for Materials and Processes, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
¹³ School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia.
¹⁴ Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
¹⁵ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
¹⁶ School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. [email protected].
¹⁷ School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney, Australia. [email protected].

PMID: 39837876
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56222-0

Abstract

Regulating favorable assemblies of metallic atoms in the liquid state provides promise for catalyzing various chemical reactions. Expanding the selection of metallic solvents, especially those with unique properties and low cost, enables access to distinctive fluidic atomic structures on the surface of liquid alloys and offers economic feasibility. Here, Sn solvent, as a low-cost commodity, supports unique atomic assemblies at the interface of molten SnIn_0.1034Cu_0.0094, which are highly selective for H₂ synthesis from hydrocarbons. Atomistic simulations reveal that distinctive adsorption patterns with hexadecane can be established with Cu transiently reaching the interfacial layer, ensuring an energy-favorable route for H₂ generation. Experiments with a natural oil as feedstock underscore this approach's performance, producing 1.2 × 10^-⁴mol/min of H₂ with 5.0 g of catalyst at ~93.0% selectivity while offering reliable scalability and durability at 260 °C. This work presents an alternative avenue of tuning fluidic atomic structures, broadening the applications of liquid metals.