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Updated: May 28, 2025

On the Preparation and Testing of Fuel Cell Catalysts Using the Thin Film Rotating Disk Electrode Method
Published on: March 16, 2018
Crystallinity of Cerium Oxide Dictates Reactivity of Platinum Catalysts
Nan Zhang1, Jiankang Zhao1, Jie Wei1
1Hefei National Research Center for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, Chinese Academy of Sciences Key Laboratory of Strongly-Coupled Quantum Matter Physics, Key Laboratory of Surface and Interface Chemistry and Energy Catalysis of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Department of Chemical Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.
Abstract:
The reactivity of supported metal catalysts can be influenced by the nature of supports, which synergistically activate reactant molecules with metal sites. The investigation of the crystalline effect of CeO2 remains unclear because of the easy formation of fluorite-structure CeO2. Here, we successfully synthesized CeO clusters with distinct crystallinity and established that the crystalline nature of CeO clusters dictates the reactivity of the Pt/CeO catalysts for CO oxidation. Specifically, Pt clusters supported on crystalline CeO exhibited a specific CO conversion rate approximately 15-fold higher than those on amorphous CeO at temperatures of 120 to 140 °C. Detailed experimental investigations and simulations revealed that the enhanced CO oxidation reactivity originates from the higher mobility of lattice oxygen and more labile oxygen species on crystalline CeO nanoclusters. This work deepens our understanding of crystallinity-dependent redox properties of nanoscale oxide supports and opens new routes for designing better metal catalysts for targeted reactions.
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