The morphology of heterogeneous catalysts can impact their performance. However, standard manufacturing methods like extrusion or pelleting offer little options for tailoring catalyst shape. Herein, stereolithographic 3D printing is used to produce catalysts with controlled topologies to enhance their performance. A series of magnetic stir-bar compartments (SBC) were 3D printed and tested as catalysts for sucrose hydrolysis. The SBC were printed using acrylic acid (AA) and 1,6-hexanediol diacrylate (HDDA) as acid sites and hydrophobic crosslinking domains, respectively. Variations in the number and tilt direction of the SBC blades produced significant changes in their apparent catalytic activities. These changes resulted from differences in the fraction of active surface effectively interacting with the reactants in solution, as revealed by computational fluid dynamics simulations. Moreover, varying HDDA:AA ratios in SBC regulated reactant-surface interactions to control catalytic activity. Overall, 3D printing catalysts enables quick performance optimization by simultaneously controlling macroscopic structure and molecular composition.

非均相催化剂的形态会影响其性能。但是，标准的制造方法（如挤出或造粒）为定制催化剂形状提供了很少的选择。在本文中，立体光刻3D打印用于生产具有受控拓扑的催化剂以增强其性能。3D打印了一系列磁力搅拌棒隔室（SBC），并测试了其为蔗糖水解的催化剂。SBC分别使用丙烯酸（AA）和1,6-己二醇二丙烯酸酯（HDDA）作为酸性位点和疏水性交联结构域进行印刷。SBC叶片数量和倾斜方向的变化在其表观催化活性方面产生了重大变化。这些变化是由于有效表面部分与溶液中的反应物有效相互作用所致，正如计算流体动力学模拟所揭示的那样。此外，SBC中不同的HDDA：AA比值可调节反应物与表面的相互作用，以控制催化活性。总体而言，3D打印催化剂可通过同时控制宏观结构和分子组成来快速优化性能。