Heterogeneous environmental catalysis – a gentle art: CeO2–ZrO2 mixed oxides as a case history

More than 20 years ago, Christopher Master used the term gentle – skill-full – art to define homogeneous catalysis. In the present paper, we show that with the advances of knowledge of heterogeneous catalysis (CeO2–ZrO2 mixed oxides being taken as an example), this term can nowadays appropriately apply to heterogeneous catalysis as well. Thus, comprehension of the reaction mechanism and the appropriate choice of textural properties appear to allow true design of the properties of these catalytic nanomaterials, in a similar fashion to the way in which ligands gently modify the activity of a metal centre in a homogeneous catalyst.