Iron oxides catalyse the water-gas shift reaction, styrene hydrogenation, and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, and are commonly utilized as a support for metal nanoparticles. Despite the rapid advances made in metal-oxide surface science, real atomic-scale insights into surface reactions are restricted to a few select systems where the oxide surface can be reproducibly prepared and the structure is accurately known. Recently, the (001) surface of magnetite joined this exclusive club [1], and we have begun to study it's surface chemistry in detail using STM and various spectroscopies. In this presentation I will show that defects related to excess Fe cations in and under the surface dominate the surface chemistry, and that oxygen vacancies are not a common occurance on iron oxide surfaces. In the remainder of the talk I will focus on our efforts to understand the water-gas shift reaction on Fe3O4(001), and discuss the adsorption of water, CO, CO2 and H2, seperately and together, and show that formate can be identified as a potential reaction intermediate. [1] R. Bliem, et al., Science 346 (2014) 1215-1218.

Surface chemistry and catalysis on the magnetite Fe3O4(100) surface

251st National Meeting (2016)

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