Engineering the epitaxial interface of Pt-CeO2 by surface redox reaction guided nucleation for low temperature CO oxidation

The interface between metal nanoparticles (NPs) and support plays a vital role in catalysis because both electron and atom exchanges occur across the metal-support interface. However, the rational design of interfacial structure facilitating the charge transfer between the neighboring parts remains a challenge. Herein, a guided nucleation strategy based on redox reaction between noble metal precursor and support-surface is introduced to construct epitaxial interfaces between Pt NPs and CeO2 support. The Pt/CeO2 catalyst exhibits near room temperature catalytic activity for CO oxidation that is benefited from the well-defined interface structure facilitating charge transfer from CeO2 support to Pt NPs. Meanwhile, this general approach based on support-surface-induced-nucleation was successfully extended to synthesize Pd and Cu nanocatalysts on CeO2, demonstrating its universal and feasible characteristics. This work is an important step towards developing highly active supported metal catalysts by engineering their interfaces.