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Activity of Atomically Precise Titania Nanoparticles in CO Oxidation
Author(s) -
Zhao YanXia,
Wang MengMeng,
Zhang Yan,
Ding XunLei,
He ShengGui
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.201902008
Subject(s) - nanoparticle , materials science , nanotechnology , chemical engineering , engineering
Understanding the property evolution of atomically precise nanoparticles atom by atom along the size continuum is critical for selecting potential candidates to assemble nanomaterials with desired functionality, but it is very challenging experimentally especially for systems having mixtures of elements such as metal oxides. In this work, the capability to oxidize carbon monoxide has been measured experimentally for titania nanocluster anions of (TiO 2 ) n O m − (−3≤ m ≤3) across a broad size range in the gas phase. Stoichiometric (TiO 2 ) n O − exhibits superior oxidative activity over other clusters of (TiO 2 ) n O m − ( m ≠1) even when the cluster dimensions are scaled up to n =60, indicating that each atom still influences the chemical behavior of titania nanoparticles composed of ≈180 atoms. The fascinating result not only identifies a promising building block of Ti n O 2 n +1 for devising new nanoscale titania materials with desirable oxidative activity, but also provides compelling molecular‐level evidence for the Mars–van Krevelen mechanism of CO oxidation over titania supports.