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The Catalytic Nanodiode: Detecting Continous Electron Flow at Oxide–Metal Interfaces Generated by a Gas‐Phase Exothermic Reaction
Author(s) -
Park Jeong Young,
Somorjai Gabor A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
chemphyschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.016
H-Index - 140
eISSN - 1439-7641
pISSN - 1439-4235
DOI - 10.1002/cphc.200600056
Subject(s) - exothermic reaction , catalysis , chemistry , oxide , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemical reaction , torr , inorganic chemistry , thermodynamics , organic chemistry , physics
10.1002/cphc.200600056.abs Continuous flow of ballistic charge carriers is generated by an exothermic chemical reaction and detected using the catalytic metal–semiconductor Schottky diode. We obtained a hot electron current for several hours using two types of catalytic nanodiodes, Pt/TiO 2 or Pt/GaN, during carbon monoxide oxidation at pressures of 100 Torr of O 2 and 40 Torr of CO at 413–573 K. This result reveals that the chemical energy of an exothermic catalytic reaction is directly converted into hot electrons flux in the catalytic nanodiode. By heating the nanodiodes in He, we could measure the thermoelectric current which is in the opposite direction to the flow of the hot electron current. The chemicurrent is well correlated with the turnover rate of CO oxidation, which is separately measured with gas chromatography. The influence of the flow of hot charge carriers on the chemistry at the oxide–metal interface, and the turnover rate in the chemical reaction are discussed.