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- Cao, Lina, et al.
(författare)
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Atomically dispersed iron hydroxide anchored on Pt for preferential oxidation of CO in H-2
- 2019
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Ingår i: Nature. - : NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 565:7741, s. 631-635
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Proton-exchange-membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are attractive next-generation power sources for use in vehicles and other applications(1), with development efforts focusing on improving the catalyst system of the fuel cell. One problem is catalyst poisoning by impurity gases such as carbon monoxide (CO), which typically comprises about one per cent of hydrogen fuel(2-4). A possible solution is on-board hydrogen purification, which involves preferential oxidation of CO in hydrogen (PROX)(3-7). However, this approach is challenging(8-15) because the catalyst needs to be active and selective towards CO oxidation over a broad range of low temperatures so that CO is efficiently removed (to below 50 parts per million) during continuous PEMFC operation (at about 353 kelvin) and, in the case of automotive fuel cells, during frequent cold-start periods. Here we show that atomically dispersed iron hydroxide, selectively deposited on silica-supported platinum (Pt) nanoparticles, enables complete and 100 per cent selective CO removal through the PROX reaction over the broad temperature range of 198 to 380 kelvin. We find that the mass-specific activity of this system is about 30 times higher than that of more conventional catalysts consisting of Pt on iron oxide supports. In situ X-ray absorption fine-structure measurements reveal that most of the iron hydroxide exists as Fe-1(OH)(x) clusters anchored on the Pt nanoparticles, with density functional theory calculations indicating that Fe-1(OH)(x)-Pt single interfacial sites can readily react with CO and facilitate oxygen activation. These findings suggest that in addition to strategies that target oxide-supported precious-metal nanoparticles or isolated metal atoms, the deposition of isolated transition-metal complexes offers new ways of designing highly active metal catalysts.
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| 2. |
- Tan, Shijing, et al.
(författare)
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Visualizing Elementary Reactions of Methanol by Electrons and Holes on TiO2(110) Surface
- 2018
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Ingår i: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. - : AMER CHEMICAL SOC. - 1932-7447 .- 1932-7455. ; 122:50, s. 28805-28814
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Direct visualization and comparison of the elementary reactions induced by electrons and holes are of importance for finding a way to conduct chemical reactions and reaction sequences in a controllable manner. As a semiconductor, TiO2 provides a playground to perform the measurements, and moreover, the information can be useful for design of high-performance TiO2-based catalysts and photocatalysts. Here, we present our investigation on the elementary reactions of CH3OH on TiO2 surface through visualization of specific elementary steps by highly controllable electron and hole injection using scanning tunneling microscopy. The distinct sequential routes and their kinetics, namely, breaking C-O and O-H bonds by electrons and breaking O-H and C-H bonds by holes, respectively, have been experimentally identified and well elucidated by density functional theory calculations. Our nonlocal h-injection experimental and theoretical results suggest that the delocalized holes in the TiO2 substrate should be responsible for the temperature-dependent h-route reactions. The locally triggered e-route reaction is associated with the fact that the location of the unoccupied hybridization states is much higher than that of the conduction band onset. Our findings resolve the long-standing debate about the intermediate species and reaction mechanism in photocatalytic oxidation of CH3OH. Our proposed protocol offers a powerful means to study elementary reactions induced by electrons and holes on a semiconductor surface in general.
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