ABSTRACT
Cationic and anionic cobalt oxide clusters, generated by laser vaporization, were studied using guided-ion-beam mass spectrometry to obtain insight into their structure and reactivity with carbon monoxide. Anionic clusters having the stoichiometries Co2O3(-), Co2O5(-), Co3O5(-) and Co3O6(-) were found to exhibit dominant products corresponding to the transfer of a single oxygen atom to CO, indicating the formation of CO 2. Cationic clusters, in contrast, displayed products resulting from the adsorption of CO onto the cluster accompanied by the loss of either molecular O 2 or cobalt oxide units. In addition, collision induced dissociation experiments were conducted with N 2 and inert xenon gas for the anionic clusters, and xenon gas for the cationic clusters. It was found that cationic clusters fragment preferentially through the loss of molecular O 2 whereas anionic clusters tend to lose both atomic oxygen and cobalt oxide units. To further analyze how stoichiometry and ionic charge state influence the structure of cobalt oxide clusters and their reactivity with CO, first principles theoretical electronic structure studies within the density functional theory framework were performed. The calculations show that the enhanced reactivity of specific anionic cobalt oxides with CO is due to their relatively low atomic oxygen dissociation energy which makes the oxidation of CO energetically favorable. For cationic cobalt oxide clusters, in contrast, the oxygen dissociation energies are calculated to be even lower than for the anionic species. However, in the cationic clusters, oxygen is calculated to bind preferentially in a less activated molecular O 2 form. Furthermore, the CO adsorption energy is calculated to be larger for cationic clusters than for anionic species. Therefore, the experimentally observed displacement of weakly bound O 2 units through the exothermic adsorption of CO onto positively charged cobalt oxides is energetically favorable. Our joint experimental and theoretical findings indicate that positively charged sites in bulk-phase cobalt oxides may serve to bind CO to the catalyst surface and specific negatively charged sites provide the activated oxygen which leads to the formation of CO 2. These results provide molecular level insight into how size, stoichiometry, and ionic charge state influence the oxidation of CO in the presence of cobalt oxides, an important reaction for environmental pollution abatement.
ABSTRACT
We present results from our joint experimental and theoretical study of the reactivity of anionic and cationic gold oxide clusters toward CO, focusing on the role of atomic oxygen, different charge states, and mechanisms for oxidation. We show that anionic clusters react by an Eley-Rideal-like mechanism involving the preferential attack of CO on oxygen rather than gold. In contrast, the oxidation of CO on cationic gold oxide clusters can occur by both an Eley-Rideal-like and a Langmuir-Hinshelwood-like mechanism at multiple collision conditions as a result of the high adsorption energy of two CO molecules. This large energy of CO adsorption on cationic gold oxide clusters is the driving force for the CO oxidation. Therefore, in the presence of cationic gold species at high pressures of CO, the oxidation reaction is self-promoting (i.e., the oxidation of one CO molecule is promoted by the binding of a second CO). Our findings provide new insight into the role of charge state in gold-cluster-based nanocatalysis.
ABSTRACT
Synergistic studies employing experiments in the gas phase and theoretical first principles calculations have been carried out to investigate the structure, stability, and reactivity toward CO of iron oxide cluster anions, Fe(x)O(y)- (x = 1-2, y < or = 6). Collision-induced dissociation studies of iron oxide species, employing xenon collision gas, show that FeO3- and FeO2- are the stable building blocks of the larger iron oxide clusters. Theoretical calculations show that the fragmentation patterns leading to the production of O or FeO(n) fragments are governed both by the energetics of the overall process as well as the number of intermediate states and the changes in spin multiplicity. Mass-selected experiments identified oxygen atom transfer to CO as the dominant reaction pathway for most anionic iron oxide clusters. A theoretical analysis of the molecular level pathways has been carried out to highlight the role of energetics as well as the spin states of the intermediates on the oxidation reaction.
