| Summary: | Separation of homogeneous catalyst species from product mixture in liquid phase has been a major problem in industry. Thus, the facilitated separation of nanosize magnetic body carrying catalytically active species is of a tremendous interest. The major advantage is that the magnetic nano-catalysts display an excellent mass transfer coefficient (high surface area to volume ratio) comparable to soluble species but can still be easily separated from liquid using magnetic interaction with an external applied inhomogeneous magnetic field. However, their stability in reactive environment remains to be the key issue. Here, we show that S-capping species can isolate and protect the nano-size FePt magnetic core from environment. The functionalized surfaces can also offer anchoring sites for immobilization of catalytically active species (nano-metal particulates, homogeneous catalysts and enzymes). With such small magnetic catalyst bodies, the merits of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis can then be combined.
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