Cu–Cu<sub>2</sub>O Heterogeneous Architecture for the Enhanced CO Catalytic Oxidation
Bo Ma, Chuncai Kong, Jian Lv, Xiaojing Zhang, Sen Yang, Tao Yang, Zhimao Yang
Abstract
Abstract Heterogeneous architecture of Cu 2 O‐based composite has exhibited beneficial effort in the CO oxidation, due to the low cost and the multiple oxidation states. In this work, Cu–Cu 2 O heterogeneous particles (HPs) comprising uniformly distributed Cu nanoparticles anchored on the Cu 2 O surface are synthesized by in situ reduction reaction. Comparing with the pure Cu 2 O particles, Cu–Cu 2 O HPs exhibit enhanced and stable catalytic performance during CO oxidation. Moreover, both the transformation of interface and the role of loaded Cu nanoparticle at a molecular level are investigated to analyze the promotion, suggesting that the surface of Cu–Cu 2 O HPs can be spontaneously oxidized to a composite interface during the CO oxidation. The density functional theory (DFT) simulations indicate that due to loaded Cu nanoparticles, the heterogeneous architecture promotes the catalytic reaction under both the Eley–Rideal mechanism as well as Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism. As a result, the composite interface and loaded Cu nanoparticles together play the synergistic effect of enhanced CO oxidation.