Surrounded Catalysts Prepared by Ion Exchange Inverse Loading: Design Strategies, Structural Features, and Catalytic Applications

ABSTRACT

Traditional supported catalysts often suffer from severe challenges under high‐temperature or harsh reaction conditions, including sintering of active species, carbon deposition, and progressive deactivation. Surrounded catalysts, constructed via the ion‐exchange inverse loading method (IEIL), follow an inverse synthetic route in which the support is built around the active phase, thereby generating interfacial structures with mutually modulated characteristics. This review systematically summarizes the construction strategies of encapsulated catalysts, with particular emphasis on IEIL‐derived systems, and discusses the interfacial features of different topological architectures, including core–shell, inverse, and gradient configurations. Through comparison with conventional catalysts, the advantages of encapsulated structures in some representative reactions, such as CO methanation, dry reforming of methane, and liquid‐phase hydrogenation, are analyzed. The discussion further elucidates the structure‐performance relationships of these catalysts in terms of spatial confinement, interfacial electronic regulation, and reaction pathway optimization. Finally, the current challenges and future prospects of this class of catalysts in the design of high‐performance catalytic systems are highlighted.