The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka, 567-0047, Japan.
Research Institute for Ubiquitous Energy Devices, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 1-8-31, Midorigaoka, Ikeda, Osaka, 563-8577, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2018 May 25;9(1):2060. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-04412-4.
Nanoporous gold (NPG) with sponge-like structures has been studied by atomic-scale and microsecond-resolution environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) combined with ab initio energy calculations. Peculiar surface dynamics were found in the reaction environment for the oxidation of CO at room temperature, involving residual silver in the NPG leaves as well as gold and oxygen atoms, especially on {110} facets. The NPG is thus classified as a novel self-activating catalyst. The essential structure unit for catalytic activity was identified as Au-AgO surface clusters, implying that the NPG is regarded as a nano-structured silver oxide catalyst supported on the matrix of NPG, or an inverse catalyst of a supported gold nanoparticulate (AuNP) catalyst. Hence, the catalytically active structure in the gold catalysts (supported AuNP and NPG catalysts) can now be experimentally unified in low-temperature CO oxidation, a step forward towards elucidating the fascinating catalysis mechanism of gold.
采用原子尺度和微秒分辨率的环境透射电子显微镜（ETEM）结合从头算能量计算对具有海绵状结构的纳米多孔金（NPG）进行了研究。在室温下 CO 氧化的反应环境中发现了奇特的表面动力学，涉及 NPG 叶片中的残留银以及金和氧原子，特别是在 {110} 面上。因此，NPG 被归类为新型自激活催化剂。确定了催化活性的基本结构单元为 Au-AgO 表面簇，这意味着 NPG 被认为是负载在 NPG 基体上的纳米结构氧化银催化剂，或者是负载金纳米颗粒（AuNP）催化剂的反催化剂。因此，在低温 CO 氧化中，现在可以在实验上统一金催化剂（负载的 AuNP 和 NPG 催化剂）中的催化活性结构，朝着阐明金迷人的催化机制迈出了一步。
