Charge dependent catalytic activity of gasborne nanoparticles

It is shown experimentally that the electric charge of unsupported catalyst particles has a major influence on the methanation of CO with nano-sized Ni particles as catalyst at temperatures between 680 K and 720 K. Neutral particles showed an apparent activation energy of 148 kJ/mol, significantly higher than the apparent activation energies of 43 kJ/mol and 60 kJ/mol for negatively and positively charged particles, respectively. The obtained activation energies are comparable to energies obtained for different sites on alumina supported nickel catalysts. The change in activation energy can be qualitatively explained by different electron interchange between the chemisorbed species and the catalyst. We suggest that the observed effect of electron enhancement or depletion on catalysis is also a governing effect in strong metal support interaction (SMSI), where the displacement of electrons is related to the contact potential between catalyst and substrate.