Dear Colleagues,

Heterogeneous catalysis is in essence based on the exploitation of the interactions of molecules with solid surfaces. Therefore, one of the most important challenges for the development of efficient heterogeneous catalysts is to make available as many active sites as possible to the reagents while allowing an efficient release of the products. This is one of the reasons why the design of high-performance heterogeneous catalysts is linked in particular to the progress obtained in the development of porous materials properly dimensioned and stable enough under the conditions of the targeted reactions. Zeolites, because of their relatively high stability and the progress made in their synthesis over many years, are widely represented in industrial heterogeneous catalysis processes today. Such materials are intrinsically active in acid-base catalysis and can be used as metals supports, thus covering a wide range of applications in catalysis. Moreover, the pioneering work carried out on these materials has paved the way for the exploitation of porous supports, in general, with the aim also of influencing the selectivity of catalytic processes, in particular by means of confinement effects.

Since then, the variety of organized porous supports available has increased considerably with, in the 1990s, the development of oxides, carbons, and polymers with structured mesopores, in the 2000s, the development of metal organic frameworks (MOF) and even more recently, covalent organic frameworks (COF). This has allowed different ways of adapting the porosity scales and organization while controlling the surface properties as closely as possible, to the point of establishing connections between homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis. The hierarchization of porosity, based, for example, on the combination of micropores and mesopores, has also opened up interesting prospects for a more extensive exploitation of zeolites in applications, which were previously handicapped by diffusion limitations. Additionally, the incorporation of macropores and implementation in the forms of monoliths instead of powders are very up-to-date topics, particularly for the development of processes operating continuously in the liquid phase.

The objective of this Special Issue is to emphasize the contribution(s) that porous materials can provide to the performance of heterogeneous catalysts. We are interested in the investigation of structure–property relationships. Main fields of application targeted here are energy, fine chemistry, and pollution control processes. The active phases can be simple metals, metal complexes, nanoparticles, etc. and even enzymes or combinations opening up new fields of application. Thus, several examples of studies claiming an improvement in the stability of enzymes once they are grafted onto porous supports have been published, leaving the possibility of developing tandem heterogeneous catalysis involving biocatalysts and supported chemical catalysts. Other interesting issues which are not exhaustive concern photocatalysis or the possibilities of intensification by exploiting pre-concentration phenomena by adsorption of reagents within porous catalysts.

Prof. Dr. Franck Launay
Guest Editor

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• heterogeneous catalysis
• porous materials
• zeolites
• pore sizes
• stability
• microporous
• mesoporous
• macroporous
• metal
• enzymes
• adsorption
• selectivity
• confinement
• oxides
• carbons
• polymers
• hierarchical porosity
• tandem catalysis
• Metal-organic frameworks (MOF)
• Covalent-organic frameworks (COF)
• monoliths
• photocatalysis