Tuning the activities of cuprous oxide nanostructures via the oxide-metal interaction
Wugen Huang, Qingfei Liu, Zhiwen Zhou, Yangsheng Li, Yunjian Ling, Yong Wang, Yunchuan Tu, Beibei Wang, Xin‐Hui Zhou, Dehui Deng, Bo Yang, Yong Yang, Zhi Liu, Xinhe Bao, Fan Yang
Abstract
Abstract Despite tremendous importance in catalysis, the design of oxide-metal interface has been hampered by the limited understanding of the nature of interfacial sites and the oxide-metal interaction (OMI). Through construction of well-defined Cu 2 O/Pt, Cu 2 O/Ag and Cu 2 O/Au interfaces, we find that Cu 2 O nanostructures (NSs) on Pt exhibit much lower thermal stability than on Ag and Au, although they show the same structure. The activities of these interfaces are compared for CO oxidation and follow the order of Cu 2 O/Pt > Cu 2 O/Au > Cu 2 O/Ag. OMI is found to determine the activity and stability of supported Cu 2 O NSs, which could be described by the formation energy of interfacial oxygen vacancy. Further, electronic interaction between Cu + and metal substrates is found center to OMI, where the d band center could be used as a key descriptor. Our study provides insight for OMI and for the development of Cu-based catalysts for low temperature oxidation reactions.