Publication
We combine low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and measurements of the catalytic activity to establish a structure-reactivity correlation for the CO oxidation on Pt nanoclusters on rutile TiO2(110)-(1 x 1). Annealing of the clusters to 1100 K leads to their encapsulation by a reduced titania layer. We present a method how this catalytically passive strong metal-support interaction state can be transformed into a very active one. We believe that our method is of general interest well beyond the presented system.
Paul Joseph Dyson, Gabor Laurenczy, Zhaofu Fei, Antoine Philippe Van Muyden, Lu Chen, Ulf Anders Hagfeldt, Jun Li, Lichen Bai, Linfeng Pan, Yun Tong