In an inverse catalyst, oxide nanolayer is supported on a metal surface, in which the surface oxide is often two-dimensional (2D), metastable, but highly active. The planar surfaces of the inverse catalysts provide a perfect playground to probe the nature of the oxide-metal interaction, which has been termed as the interface confinement effect in the inverse catalysts and is also considered to be crucial in conventional oxide-supported metal catalysts. Here, the growth and oxidation of Fe oxide (FeOx) nanoislands on Pt(111) and Au(111) were studied by surface science measurements and density functional calculations. We found that Pt(111) surface exerts a stronger confinement effect on the formation of the metastable surface Fe oxide phase in comparison to Au(111). The comparative study enables us to conclude that the confinement effect is closely related to the strength of interfacial bonding between cations of the oxide and surface atoms of the noble metal substrate. This understanding helps to design oxide-on-metal inverse catalysts with improved performance. References Mingming Wei, Qiang Fu, Aiyi Dong, Zhoujun Wang, Xinhe Bao, “Coverage and substrate effects on the structural change of FeOx nanostructures supported on Pt”, Topics in Catalysis, 2014, 57, 90-898 Xuejun Xu, Qiang Fu, Xiaoguang Guo, Xinhe Bao, “A highly active “NiO-on-Au” surface architecture for CO oxidation”, ACS Catalysis, 2013, 3, 1810-1818; Qiang Fu, Fan Yang, Xinhe Bao, “Interface-confined oxide nanostructures for catalytic oxidation reactions”, Accounts of Chemical Research, 2013, 46, 1692-1701

On the interface confinement effect in the oxide-on-metal inverse catalysts

249th National Meeting (2015)

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