Reaction-Induced Strong Metal-Support Interactions between Metals and Inert Boron Nitride Nanosheets

Encapsulation of metal nanocatalysts by support-derived materials is well known as a classical strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) effect that occurs almost exclusively with active oxide supports and often blocks metal-catalyzed surface reactions. In the present work this classical SMSI process has been surprisingly observed between metal nanoparticles, e.g., Ni, Fe, Co, and Ru, and inert hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) nanosheets. We find that weak oxidizing gases such as CO2 and H2O induce the encapsulation of nickel (Ni) nanoparticles by ultrathin boron oxide (BOx) overlayers derived from the h-BN support (Ni@BOx/h-BN) during the dry reforming of methane (DRM) reaction. In-situ surface characterization and theory calculations reveal that surface B-O and B-OH sites in the formed BOx encapsulation overlayers work synergistically with surface Ni sites to promote the DRM process rather than blocking the surface reactions.