Boosting Support Reducibility and Metal Dispersion by Exposed Surface Atom Control for Highly Active Supported Metal Catalysts

For oxide-supported metal catalysts, support reducibilityand metal dispersion are the key factors to determine the activity andselectivity in many essential reactions involving redox process. Herein, wetuned the exposed surface atoms of the catalyst by facet control anddoping methods, which were simultaneously applied to boost thereducibility and metal dispersion of an oxide support. Pd supported onCu-doped CeO2(Pd/CDC) for water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) wasconsidered a model system; Cu was doped into the cubic and octahedralCeO2enclosed with (100) and (111) facets, respectively. By a systematiccombination of density functional theory calculations and experimentalanalyses, the WGSR activity of the Pd/CDC cube was verified tosynergistically increase by more than just the sum of the morphology andCu doping effects. The effect of each tuning method on the activity wasfurther investigated from a mechanistic perspective. This work presents arational design knowledge to enhance the catalytic activity that can be extended to a wide range of supported metal systems

Automated summary

In this study, the activity and selectivity of oxide-supported metal catalysts were enhanced by controlling the catalyst's facet and doping methods. The WGSR activity of Pd supported on Cu-doped CeO2 (CDC) was found to synergistically increase, exceeding the sum of the effects of morphology and Cu doping. The effect of each tuning method on the activity was further investigated from a mechanistic perspective.