Unraveling surface structures of gallium promoted transition metal catalysts in CO hydrogenation.

Gallium-containing alloys have recently been reported to hydrogenate CO to methanol at ambient pressures. However, a full understanding of the Ga-promoted catalysts is still missing due to the lack of information about the surface structures formed under reaction conditions. Here, we employed near ambient pressure scanning tunneling microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to monitor the evolution of well-defined Cu-Ga surfaces during CO hydrogenation.

Highly Stable and Reactive Platinum Single Atoms on Oxygen Plasma-Functionalized CeO Surfaces: Nanostructuring and Peroxo Effects.

Atomically dispersed precious metals on oxide supports have recently become increasingly interesting catalytic materials. Nonetheless, their non-trivial preparation and limited thermal and environmental stability constitutes an issue for their potential applications. Here we demonstrate that an oxygen plasma pre-treatment of the ceria (CeO ) surface serves to anchor Pt single atoms, making them active and resistant towards sintering in the CO oxidation reaction.