Interstitial Atomic Bi Charge-Alternating Processor Boosts Twofold Molecular Oxygen Activation Enabling Rapid Catalytic Oxidation Reactions at Room Temperature

Molecular O-2 activation on metallic oxide-based catalysts surfaces is pivotal for catalytic oxidation reactions but highly depends on the O-2 activation pathways or mechanisms. Thus, comprehensively understanding the mechanism of efficient O-2 activation is conducive to extending the fundamental principles for O-2 activation theories and designing novel catalysts for catalytic oxidation reactions. In this study, it is declared that the interstitial atomic Bi (IA Bi) anchored in the lattice interstice of MnO2 (Bi/MnO2) is capable of triggering an alternative twofold O-2 activation boosting the catalytic oxidation reactions at room temperature. Explicitly, the IA Bi facilely induces the local lattice distortion reconstructing the local charge landscape, thus weakening the O-2 dissociation energy barrier by elongating the O-O bond length. And, the charge-alternating process engineered by the IA Bi drives the alternative twofold O-2 activation of the adjacent lattice oxygen and adsorbs dangling oxygen assisted by the consecutive O-2 replenishment. Conclusively, this study not only declares the role of IA Bi in driving the charge-alternating process during the twofold O-2 activation but also extends the fundamental principles toward O-2 activation mechanisms for catalytic oxidation reactions via atomic makeup engineering.

Automated summary

This study demonstrates that interstitial atomic Bi anchored in the lattice interstice of MnO2 can boost the catalytic oxidation reactions by triggering an alternative twofold O-2 activation, weakening the O-2 dissociation energy barrier by reconstructing the local charge landscape and elongating the O-O bond length.