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Updated: Nov 18, 2025

Multiscale Sampling of a Heterogeneous Water/Metal Catalyst Interface using Density Functional Theory and Force-Field Molecular Dynamics
Published on: April 12, 2019
Dynamic structure of active sites in ceria-supported Pt catalysts for the water gas shift reaction
Yuanyuan Li1, Matthew Kottwitz2, Joshua L Vincent3
1Department of Materials Science and Chemical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, USA. Yuanyuan.li@stonybrook.edu.
Abstract:
Oxide-supported noble metal catalysts have been extensively studied for decades for the water gas shift (WGS) reaction, a catalytic transformation central to a host of large volume processes that variously utilize or produce hydrogen. There remains considerable uncertainty as to how the specific features of the active metal-support interfacial bonding-perhaps most importantly the temporal dynamic changes occurring therein-serve to enable high activity and selectivity. Here we report the dynamic characteristics of a Pt/CeO2 system at the atomic level for the WGS reaction and specifically reveal the synergistic effects of metal-support bonding at the perimeter region. We find that the perimeter Pt0 - O vacancy-Ce3+ sites are formed in the active structure, transformed at working temperatures and their appearance regulates the adsorbate behaviors. We find that the dynamic nature of this site is a key mechanistic step for the WGS reaction.
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