The structures and catalytic activities of metallic nanoparticles on mixed oxide

The metallic nanoparticles (Pt, Au, Ag. Cu, etc.) supported on ceria-titania mixed oxide exhibit a high catalytic activity for the water gas shift reaction ($H_2O\;+\;CO\;{\leftrightarrow}\;H_2\;+\;CO_2$) and the CO oxidation ($O_2\;+\;2CO\;{\leftrightarrow}\;2CO_2$). It has been speculated that the high catalytic activity is related to the easy exchange of the oxidation states of ceria ($Ce^{3+}$ and $Ce^{4+}$) on titania, but very little is known about the ceria titanium interaction, the growth mode of metal on ceria titania complex, and the reaction mechanism. In this work, the growth of $CeO_x$ and Au/$CeO_x$ on rutile $TiO_2$(110) have been investigated by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES), and DFT calculation. In the $CeO_x/TiO_2$(110) systems, the titania substrate imposes on the ceria nanoparticles non-typical coordination modes, favoring a $Ce^{3+}$ oxidation state and enhancing their chemical activity. The deposition of metal on a $CeO_x/TiO_2$(110) substrate generates much smaller nanoparticles with an extremely high activity. We proposed a mechanism that there is a strong coupling of the chemical properties of the admetal and the mixed-metal oxide: The adsorption and dissociation of water probably take place on the oxide, CO adsorbs on the admetal nanoparticles, and all subsequent reaction steps occur at the oxide-admetal interface.