Structural surface investigations of cerium-zirconium mixed oxide nanocrystals with enhanced reducibility

High-resolution electron microscopy, high-angle annular dark field images, electron tomography data, and density functional theory calculations are presented that show the occurrence of significant structural and surface modifications in a nanocrystalline sample of cerium-zirconium mixed oxide upon high-temperature reduction with hydrogen followed by mild oxidation. Our findings may lend further support to a recently proposed model in accordance with which the enhanced reducibility exhibited by the mixed oxide after this treatment is due to parallel modifications occurred in its surface chemistry.