Ultradispersed MgO-Supported Single-Site Iridium Catalysts: Tuning the Support As a Ligand to Influence Catalysis

Supports of metal catalysts are ligands that influence catalytic properties; we varied pretreatment conditions and thereby the populations of various defect sites on MgO to tune the bonding to single-site iridium catalysts and thereby catalytic properties for ethylene hydrogenation, diagnosing the bonding with IR spectra of CO ligands on Ir.