Understanding the Reducibility of CeO Surfaces by Proton-Electron Transfer from CpCr(CO)H.

CeO is a popular material in heterogeneous catalysis, molecular sensors, and electronics and owes many of its special properties to the redox activity of Ce, present as both Ce and Ce. However, the reduction of CeO with H (thought to occur through proton-electron transfer (PET) giving Ce and new OH bonds) is poorly understood due to the high reduction temperatures necessary and the ill-defined nature of the hydrogen atom sources typically used. We have previously shown that transition-metal hydrides with weak M-H bonds react with reducible metal oxides at room temperature by PET.