Boosting the catalysis of gold by O<sub>2</sub> activation at Au-SiO<sub>2</sub> interface.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31992700.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-14241-8 and PMC identifier 6987105.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Supported gold (Au) nanocatalysts have attracted extensive interests in the past decades because of their unique catalytic properties for a number of key chemical reactions, especially in (selective) oxidations. The activation of O<sub>2</sub> on Au nanocatalysts is crucial and remains a challenge because only small Au nanoparticles (NPs) can effectively activate O<sub>2</sub>. This severely limits their practical application because Au NPs inevitably sinter into larger ones during reaction due to their low Taman temperature. Here we construct a Au-SiO<sub>2</sub> interface by depositing thin SiO<sub>2</sub> layer onto Au/TiO<sub>2</sub> and calcination at high temperatures and demonstrate that the interface can be not only highly sintering resistant but also extremely active for O<sub>2</sub> activation. This work provides insights into the catalysis of Au nanocatalysts and paves a way for the design and development of highly active supported Au catalysts with excellent thermal stability.