Atomic level fluxional behavior and activity of CeO<sub>2</sub>-supported Pt catalysts for CO oxidation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 34608153.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-021-26047-8 and PMC identifier 8490411.
- 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
Reducible oxides are widely used catalyst supports that can increase oxidation reaction rates by transferring lattice oxygen at the metal-support interface. There are many outstanding questions regarding the atomic-scale dynamic meta-stability (i.e., fluxional behavior) of the interface during catalysis. Here, we employ aberration-corrected operando electron microscopy to visualize the structural dynamics occurring at and near Pt/CeO2 interfaces during CO oxidation. We show that the catalytic turnover frequency correlates with fluxional behavior that (a) destabilizes the supported Pt particle, (b) marks an enhanced rate of oxygen vacancy creation and annihilation, and (c) leads to increased strain and reduction in the CeO2 support surface. Overall, the results implicate the interfacial Pt-O-Ce bonds anchoring the Pt to the support as being involved also in the catalytically-driven oxygen transfer process, and they suggest that oxygen reduction takes place on the highly reduced CeO2 surface before migrating to the interfacial perimeter for reaction with CO.