Confined catalysis has been regarded as an important strategy to modulate chemical reactions and enhance catalytic performance. Previous studies have demonstrated that the applications of confinement effect in catalysis are in enclosed nanospace. However, whether an open space has this effect is still unclear.
Recently, a research group led by Prof. BAO Xinhe and Prof. FU Qiang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) revealed the interface confinement effect on open space in In 2 O 3 -TiO 2 catalyst during reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction. This study was published in Journal of the American Chemical Society .
The researchers physically mixed In 2 O 3 and TiO 2 to obtain an In 2 O 3 -TiO 2 catalyst for the RWGS reaction. They verified that the open surface of TiO 2 could create a confined environment for In 2 O 3 , which drove the spontaneous transformation of free In 2 O 3 nanoparticles into In oxide nanolayers (InO x ) covering onto the TiO 2 surface during RWGS.
Besides, the researchers found that the formed InO x nanolayers were easy to create surface oxygen vacancies but were against over reduction to metallic In in the H 2 -rich atmospheres, resulting in enhanced activity and stability compared with the pure In 2 O 3 catalyst. They identified that the formation of interfacial In-O-Ti bonding drove the In 2 O 3 dispersion and stabilized the metastable InO x layer.
Therefore, the researchers demonstrated that the InO x overlayers with distinct chemistry from their free counterparts could be confined on various oxide surfaces, and the important confinement effect at oxide/oxide interfaces.
"The interface confinement effect plays an important role in many oxide/oxide catalysts, which can be used to enhance the catalytic performance," said Prof. FU.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
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