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Site‐Resolved Cu 2 O Catalysis in the Oxidation of CO
Author(s) -
Zhang Zhenhua,
Wu Hong,
Yu Zongyou,
Song Rui,
Qian Kun,
Chen Xuanye,
Tian Jie,
Zhang Wenhua,
Huang Weixin
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201814258
Subject(s) - catalysis , nanocrystal , nanoparticle , kinetics , chemical engineering , materials science , heterogeneous catalysis , chemistry , density functional theory , chemical physics , nanotechnology , computational chemistry , organic chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , engineering
The identification of the contribution of different surface sites to the catalytic activity of a catalyst nanoparticle is one of the most challenging issues in the fundamental studies of heterogeneous catalysis. We herein demonstrate an effective strategy of using a series of uniform cubic Cu 2 O nanocrystals with different sizes to identify the intrinsic activity and contributions of face and edge sites in the catalysis of CO oxidation by a combination of reaction kinetics analysis and DFT calculations. Cu 2 O nanocrystals undergo in situ surface oxidation forming CuO thin films during CO oxidation. As the average size of the cubic Cu 2 O nanocrystals decreases from 1029 nm to 34 nm, the dominant active sites contributing to the catalytic activity switch from face sites to edge sites. These results reveal the interplay between the intrinsic catalytic activity and the density of individual types of surface sites on a catalyst nanoparticle in determining their contributions to the catalytic activity.