Stabilizing Oxide Nanolayer via Interface Confinement and Surface Hydroxylation.

Surface hydroxylation over oxide catalysts often occurs in many catalytic processes involving H and HO, which is considered to play an important role in elementary steps of the reactions. Here, monolayer CoO and CoOH nanoislands on Pt(111) are used as inverse model catalysts to study the effect of surface hydroxylation on the stability of Co oxide overlayers in O. Surface science experiments indicate that hydroxyl groups formed on CoO nanoislands produced by deuterium-spillover can enhance oxidation resistance of the Co oxide nanostructures.

Oxidative Strong Metal-Support Interactions between Metals and Inert Boron Nitride.

The strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) is one of the most important concepts in heterogeneous catalysis, which has been widely investigated between metals and active oxides triggered by reductive atmospheres. Here, we report the oxidative strong metal-support interaction (O-SMSI) effect between Pt nanoparticles (NPs) and inert hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) sheets, in which Pt NPs are encapsulated by oxidized boron (BO) overlayers derived from the h-BN support under oxidative conditions. De-encapsulation of Pt NPs has been achieved by washing in water, and the residual ultrathin BO overlayers work synergistically with surface Pt sites for enhancing CO oxidation reaction.

Design of Lewis Pairs via Interface Engineering of Oxide-Metal Composite Catalyst for Water Activation.

The rational design and controlled construction of active centers remain grand challenges in heterogeneous catalysis, in particular for oxide catalysts with complex surface and interface structures. This work describes a facile way in the design of highly active Ni-O Lewis pairs for water activation where Ni and O sites act as Lewis acid and base, respectively. Surface science experiments indicate that dissociative adsorption of water occurs at edges of NiO nanoislands grown on Au(111) and NiO-Ni interfaces formed by further depositing metallic Ni layers along the edges of NiO nanoislands.

Reaction-Induced Strong Metal-Support Interactions between Metals and Inert Boron Nitride Nanosheets.

Encapsulation of metal nanocatalysts by support-derived materials is well known as a classical strong metal-support interaction (SMSI) effect that occurs almost exclusively with active oxide supports and often blocks metal-catalyzed surface reactions. In the present work this classical SMSI process has been surprisingly observed between metal nanoparticles, e.g.