Yaqiong Su

Atomically Dispersed Pd–O Species on CeO2(111) as Highly Active Sites for Low-Temperature CO Oxidation

Ceria-supported Pd is a promising heterogeneous catalyst for CO oxidation relevant to environmental cleanup reactions. Pd loaded onto a nanorod form of ceria exposing predominantly (111) facets is already active at 50 °C. Here we report a combination of CO-FTIR spectroscopy and theoretical calculations that allows assigning different forms of Pd on the CeO2(111) surface during reaction conditions. Single Pd atoms stabilized in the form of PdO and PdO2 in a CO/O2 atmosphere participate in a catalytic cycle involving very low activation barriers for CO oxidation. The presence of single Pd atoms on the Pd/CeO2-nanorod, corroborated by aberration-corrected TEM and CO-FTIR spectroscopy, is considered pivotal to its high CO oxidation activity.

A linear scaling relation for CO oxidation on CeO2-supported Pd

Resolving the structure and composition of supported nanoparticles under reaction conditions remains a challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Advanced configurational sampling methods at the density functional theory level are used to identify stable structures of a Pd8 cluster on ceria (CeO2) in the absence and presence of O2. A Monte Carlo method in the Gibbs ensemble predicts Pd-oxide particles to be stable on CeO2 during CO oxidation. Computed potential energy diagrams for CO oxidation reaction cycles are used as input for microkinetics simulations. Pd-oxide exhibits a much higher CO oxidation activity than metallic Pd on CeO2. This work presents for the first time a scaling relation for a CeO2-supported metal nanoparticle catalyst in CO oxidation: a higher oxidation degree of the Pd cluster weakens CO binding and facilitates the rate-determining CO oxidation step with a ceria O atom. Our approach provides a new strategy to model supported nanoparticle catalysts.

CO oxidation on Rh-doped hexadecagold clusters

Exploring the unique catalytic properties of gold clusters associated with specific nano-architectures is essential for designing improved catalysts with a high mass-specific activity. We investigate the geometric and electronic structure of hexadecagold clusters in which Rh was doped. Density functional theory calculations demonstrate that the resulting neutral and negatively charged Rh-doped Au16 clusters are stable and bind CO and O2 stronger than Au16. Consequently, activation barriers for CO oxidation are lowered. Microkinetics simulations predict especially negatively charged Rh-doped Au16 clusters to exhibit very high CO oxidation activity, already at sub-ambient temperature. Our findings highlight the promise of alloying gold clusters with more reactive transition metals and the importance of charge transfer from the support in heterogeneous gold systems in catalyzing CO oxidation.

Highly Active and Stable CH4 Oxidation by Substitution of Ce4+ by Two Pd2+ Ions in CeO2(111)

Methane (CH4) combustion is an increasingly important reaction for environmental protection, for which Pd/CeO2 has emerged as the preferred catalyst. There is a lack of understanding of the nature of the active site in these catalysts. Here, we use density functional theory to understand the role of doping of Pd in the ceria surface for generating sites highly active toward the C–H bonds in CH4. Specifically, we demonstrate that two Pd2+ ions can substitute one Ce4+ ion, resulting in a very stable structure containing a highly coordinated unsaturated Pd cation that can strongly adsorb CH4 and dissociate the first C–H bond with a low energy barrier. An important aspect of the high activity of the stabilized isolated Pd cation is its ability to form a strong σ-complex with CH4, which leads to effective activation of CH4. We show that also other transition metals like Pt, Rh, and Ni can give rise to similar structures with high activity toward C–H bond dissociation. These insights provide us with a novel structural view of solid solutions of transition metals such as Pt, Pd, Ni, and Rh in CeO2, known to exhibit high activity in CH4 combustion.

Epoxidation of propene using Au/TiO2: on the difference between H2 and CO as a co-reactant

The role of the reducing gas in the direct epoxidation of propene to propene oxide (PO) using O2 over a Au/TiO2 catalyst was studied through experiments and density functional theory calculations. It was found that PO can be obtained using both H2 and CO as co-reactants. The yield of PO was much lower with CO than that with H2. The role of the oxygen atoms of the titania support was studied by quantum-chemical investigations, which show that the mechanism involving CO as a co-reactant should proceed via surface oxygen vacancies, whereas with H2 the well-accepted pathway involving OOH is favored. Steady-state isotopic transient kinetic analysis experiments demonstrate that support oxygen atoms are involved in PO formation when CO is used as the co-reactant.

Optimum Particle Size for Gold-Catalyzed CO Oxidation

The structure sensitivity of gold-catalyzed CO oxidation is presented by analyzing in detail the dependence of CO oxidation rate on particle size. Clusters with less than 14 gold atoms adopt a planar structure, whereas larger ones adopt a three-dimensional structure. The CO and O2 adsorption properties depend strongly on particle structure and size. All of the reaction barriers relevant to CO oxidation display linear scaling relationships with CO and O2 binding strengths as main reactivity descriptors. Planar and three-dimensional gold clusters exhibit different linear scaling relationship due to different surface topologies and different coordination numbers of the surface atoms. On the basis of these linear scaling relationships, first-principles microkinetics simulations were conducted to determine CO oxidation rates and possible rate-determining step of Au particles. Planar Au9 and three-dimensional Au79 clusters present the highest CO oxidation rates for planar and three-dimensional clusters, respectively. The planar Au9 cluster is much more active than the optimum Au79 cluster. A common feature of optimum CO oxidation performance is the intermediate binding strengths of CO and O2, resulting in intermediate coverages of CO, O2, and O. Both these optimum particles present lower performance than maximum Sabatier performance, indicating that there is sufficient room for improvement of gold catalysts for CO oxidation.

Aerobic Oxidation of 5‐(Hydroxymethyl)furfural Cyclic Acetal Enables Selective Furan‐2,5‐dicarboxylic Acid Formation with CeO2‐Supported Gold Catalyst

The utilization of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) for the large-scale production of essential chemicals has been largely limited by the formation of solid humin as a byproduct, which prevents the operation of stepwise batch-type and continuous flow-type processes. The reaction of HMF with 1,3-propanediol produces an HMF acetal derivative that exhibits excellent thermal stability. Aerobic oxidation of the HMF acetal with a CeO2 -supported Au catalyst and Na2 CO3 in water gives a 90-95 % yield of furan 2,5-dicarboxylic acid, an increasingly important commodity chemical for the biorenewables industry, from concentrated solutions (10-20 wt %) without humin formation. The six-membered acetal ring suppresses thermal decomposition and self-polymerization of HMF in concentrated solutions. Kinetic studies supported by DFT calculations identify two crucial steps in the reaction mechanism, that is, the partial hydrolysis of the acetal into 5-formyl-2-furan carboxylic acid involving OH- and Lewis acid sites on CeO2 , and subsequent oxidative dehydrogenation of the in situ generated hemiacetal involving Au nanoparticles. These results represent a significant advance over the current state of the art, overcoming an inherent limitation of the oxidation of HMF to an important monomer for biopolymer production.