Catalytic Reaction Mechanism of NO-CO on the ZrO2 (110) and (111) Surfaces

The Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics (PCCP) Section of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences in Its Publications: The First 300 Thematic Articles in the First 3 Years

The Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics Section (PCCP Section) is one of the youngest among the sections of the International Journal of Molecular Sciences (IJMS)—the year 2021 will only mark three years since its inception [...]

Surface reduction properties of ceria-zirconia solid solutions: a first-principles study

Based on the density functional theory (DFT), the reduction properties of Ce_1-x Zr _x O₂ (110) surfaces were systematically calculated using CO as a probe for thermodynamic study, and a large supercell was applied to build the whole composition range (x = 0.125, 0.250, 0.375, 0.500, 0.625, 0.750, 0.875). From the calculated energy barriers of CO oxidation by lattice oxygen, we found that composition Ce_0.875Zr_0.125O₂ exhibited the most promising catalytic effectiveness with the lowest activation energy of 0.899 eV. Moreover, the active surface O_3c ions coordinated by two Zr ions and one Ce ion were facilely released from their bulk positions than the O_3c ions surrounded by two Ce ions and one Zr ion on Ce_0.625Zr_0.375O₂, Ce_0.500Zr_0.500O₂, and Ce_0.375Zr_0.625O₂ (110) surfaces. This difference could be explained by the binding strength of O_3c with different neighboring cations.