Surface reconstruction of perovskites (ABO3) has been well documented in material science and surface science studies. However, the catalytic consequence of the reconstruction has barely been investigated. Considering the drastic difference in both acid-base and redox properties of the A and B cations, one can envision that the reconstruction will result in different catalytic behavior of perovskites. In this talk, I will show our recent effort along the line of acid-base catalysis and redox catalysis by perovskites. The top surface was carefully characterized via a suite of tools to ensure the surface reconstruction was well captured. We show that by control the surface reconstructions via different treatments, it is possible to tune the reactivity and selectivity of both acid-base and redox reactions over perovskite catalysts. It was also demonstrated that the surface reconstruction can undermine the catalytic effect of surface facet of perovskite catalysts. Our work manifests the importance of understanding the top surface structure and composition for catalysis over complex oxides such as perovskites. Acknowledgements: This research is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division. Part of the work including was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility.

Consequences of surface reconstruction of perovskites in catalyzing acid-base reactions

255th National Meeting (2018)

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