Model catalysts have been used to nail down the reaction mechanisms for many industrially critical chemical reactions. Au nanoparticles supported on TiO2(110) offer chemical activity for many such reactions, including CO and propene oxidation reactions. The inverse model catalyst system containing TiO2 nanoparticles supported on Au(111) has shown promise for the water-gas shift reaction, methanol and propanol chemistry, and most recently by our group, ethanol chemistry. Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) studies of ethanol/Au(111) elucidate adsorption sites for ethanol on Au terrace sites, step edges, and kink sites. The desorption temperature of low coverages of ethanol from TiO2/Au(111) (~235 K) is at an intermediate temperature between the desorption temperatures from bulk Au(111) and TiO2(110), indicating both Au and TiO2 play a role in the adsorption of ethanol. The study of low temperature propene adsorption helps to shed light on interfacial TiO2/Au regions which are considered as the active sites for propene oxidation. The effect of undercoordinated Au sites on adsorption are studied to investigate the role of inverse model catalysts in understanding real catalytic processes.

Adsorption site determination for oxygenates on TiO2/Au(111)

254th National Meeting (2017)

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