ion from a primary OH group of glyc-erol. 223,231 A similar mechanism was proposed manyyears ago for alcohol oxidation on Pt/C, involving asecond step, the transfer of a hydride ion to the Ptsurface (Scheme 11). 8,87,237 We consider it more feasible that the rate-deter-mining step is the cleavage of the C-H bond at theR-carbon atom. A similar mechanism is now generallyaccepted for Au electrodes (Scheme 12). 238 Despite thestructural differences between Au nanoparticles andan extended Au electrode surface, there are alsosimilarities, such as the critical role of aqueousalkaline medium and the absence of deactivation dueto decomposition products (CO and C x H y frag-ments). 239,240 An important question is the nature of active siteson Au nanoparticles. Electrooxidation of ethanol onAu nanoparticles supported on glassy carbon re-quired the partial coverage of Au surface by oxides. 241 Another analogy might be the model proposed for COoxidation. 219,242,243 According to this suggestion, theactive site consists of an ensemble of metallic Auatoms and a cationic Au

Oxidation of Alcohols with Molecular Oxygen on Solid Catalysts

Oxygen vacancies in transition metal and rare earth oxides: Current state of understanding and remaining challenges

Catalysis can speed up chemical reactions and it usually occurs on the low coordinated steps, edges, terraces, kinks and corner atoms that are often called “active sites”. However, the atomic level interplay between active sites and catalytic activity is still an open question, owing to the large difference between idealized models and real catalysts. This stimulates us to pursue a suitable material model for studying the active sites–catalytic activity relationship, in which the atomically-thin two-dimensional sheets could serve as an ideal model, owing to their relatively simple type of active site and the ultrahigh fraction of active sites that are comparable to the overall atoms. In this tutorial review, we focus on the recent progress in disclosing the factors that affect the activity of reactive sites, including characterization of atomic coordination number, structural defects and disorder in ultrathin two-dimensional sheets by X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy, positron annihilation spectroscopy, electron spin resonance and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. Also, we overview their applications in CO catalytic oxidation, photocatalytic water splitting, electrocatalytic oxygen and hydrogen evolution reactions, and hence highlight the atomic level interplay among coordination number, structural defects/disorder, active sites and catalytic activity in the two-dimensional sheets with atomic thickness. Finally, we also present the major challenges and opportunities regarding the role of active sites in catalysis. We believe that this review provides critical insights for understanding the catalysis and hence helps to develop new catalysts with high catalytic activity.

Atomically-thin two-dimensional sheets for understanding active sites in catalysis

The structure of RuO(2)(110) and the mechanism for catalytic carbon monoxide oxidation on this surface were studied by low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and density-functional calculations. The RuO(2)(110) surface exposes bridging oxygen atoms and ruthenium atoms not capped by oxygen. The latter act as coordinatively unsaturated sites-a hypothesis introduced long ago to account for the catalytic activity of oxide surfaces-onto which carbon monoxide can chemisorb and from where it can react with neighboring lattice-oxygen to carbon dioxide. Under steady-state conditions, the consumed lattice-oxygen is continuously restored by oxygen uptake from the gas phase. The results provide atomic-scale verification of a general mechanism originally proposed by Mars and van Krevelen in 1954 and are likely to be of general relevance for the mechanism of catalytic reactions at oxide surfaces.

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/sci/287/5457/1474.full.pdf

P. Mars

Papers

Oxidations carried out by means of vanadium oxide catalysts