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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Synthesis and Performance Characterizations of Transition Metal Single Atom Catalyst for Electrochemical CO2 Reduction
Published on: April 10, 2018
The role of low-coordinate oxygen on Co3O4(110) in catalytic CO oxidation
1Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA. jiangd@ornl.gov
Abstract:
A complete catalytic cycle for carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation to carbon dioxide (CO(2)) by molecular oxygen on the Co(3)O(4)(110) surface was obtained by density functional theory plus the on-site Coulomb repulsion (DFT + U). Previously observed high activity of Co(3)O(4) to catalytically oxidize CO at very low temperatures is explained by a unique twofold-coordinate oxygen site on Co(3)O(4)(110). The CO molecule extracts this oxygen with a computed barrier of 27 kJ/mol. The extraction leads to CO(2) formation and an oxygen vacancy on Co(3)O(4)(110). Then, the O(2) molecule dissociates without a barrier between two neighboring oxygen vacancies (which are shown to have high surface mobility), thereby replenishing the twofold-coordinate oxygen sites on the surface and enabling the catalytic cycle. In contrast, extracting the threefold-coordinate oxygen site on Co(3)O(4)(110) has a higher barrier. Our work furnishes a molecular-level mechanism of Co(3)O(4)'s catalytic power, which may help understand previous experimental results and oxidation catalysis by transition metal oxides.
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