{"id":229963,"date":"2026-01-28T01:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/goldilocks-size-rhodium-clusters-advance-reusable-heterogeneous-catalysts-for-hydroformylation"},"modified":"2026-01-28T01:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T07:26:09","slug":"goldilocks-size-rhodium-clusters-advance-reusable-heterogeneous-catalysts-for-hydroformylation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/01\/goldilocks-size-rhodium-clusters-advance-reusable-heterogeneous-catalysts-for-hydroformylation","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Goldilocks size\u2019 rhodium clusters advance reusable heterogeneous catalysts for hydroformylation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/goldilocks-size-rhodium-clusters-advance-reusable-heterogeneous-catalysts-for-hydroformylation2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Recent research has demonstrated that a rhodium (Rh) cluster of an optimal, intermediate size\u2014neither too small nor too large\u2014exhibits the highest catalytic activity in hydroformylation reactions. Similar to the concept of finding the \u201cjust right\u201d balance, the study identifies this so-called \u201cGoldilocks size\u201d as crucial for maximizing catalyst efficiency. The study is <a href=\"https:\/\/pubs.acs.org\/doi\/10.1021\/acscatal.5c04353\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the journal <i>ACS Catalysis<\/i> and was featured as the cover story.<\/p>\n<p>Led by Professor Kwangjin An from the School of Energy and Chemical Engineering at UNIST, in collaboration with Professor Jeong Woo Han from Seoul National University, the research demonstrates that when <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-12-zeolitic-catalyst-great-importance-small.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\">Rh exists as a cluster <\/a>\u2014comprising about 10 atoms\u2014it outperforms both single-atom and nanoparticle forms in reaction speed and activity.<\/p>\n<p>Hydroformylation is a vital industrial process used for producing raw materials for plastics, detergents, and other chemicals. Currently, many <a href=\"https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news\/2022-05-hydrogen-fuel-prototype-yield-faster.html?utm_source=embeddings&utm_medium=related&utm_campaign=internal\" rel=\"related\" target=\"_blank\">Rh catalysts<\/a> are homogeneous\u2014dissolved in liquids\u2014which complicates separation and recycling. This challenge has driven efforts to develop solid, heterogeneous Rh catalysts that are easier to recover and reuse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent research has demonstrated that a rhodium (Rh) cluster of an optimal, intermediate size\u2014neither too small nor too large\u2014exhibits the highest catalytic activity in hydroformylation reactions. Similar to the concept of finding the \u201cjust right\u201d balance, the study identifies this so-called \u201cGoldilocks size\u201d as crucial for maximizing catalyst efficiency. The study is published in the [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,38,4,48,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-engineering","category-nanotechnology","category-particle-physics","category-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}