Formation of Second-Generation Nanoclusters on Metal Nanoparticles Driven by Reactant Gases

Franklin Feng Tao, Luan Nguyen, Shiran Zhang, Yuanyuan Li, Yu Tang, Lei Zhang, Anatoly I. Frenkel, Younan Xia, Miquel Salmeron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

Heterogeneous catalysis occurs at the interface between a solid catalyst and the reactants. The structure of metal catalyst nanoparticles at the metal-gas interface is a key factor that determines catalytic selectivity and activity. Here we report that second-generation nanoclusters are formed on the initial catalyst nanoparticles as a result of interaction with the reactant molecules when the nanoparticles are in a gas phase at Torr pressure or higher. The formation of the second-generation nanoclusters is manifested by a decrease of the average coordination number of the metal atoms and a shift of their core level energies in the presence of gases. The formation of second-generation nanoclusters increases the number of undercoordinated sites, which are the most active for catalysis in many cases.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5001-5009
Number of pages9
JournalNano Letters
Volume16
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 10 2016
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was supported by Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, U.S. Department of Energy, under Grant DESC0014561, NSF Career Award NSF-CHE-1462121 and NSFCBET- 1264798. A.I.F. and Y.L. gratefully acknowledge funding of their work by the U.S. DOE Grant DE-FG02-03ER15476 and the facilities support provided at the Synchrotron Catalysis Consortium (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Grant DE-SC0012335). M.S. was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences Division under the Department of Energy Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231.

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