Dynamic electronic structure of a Au/TiO2 catalyst under reaction conditions

Elizabeth A Willneff; Simon Braun; Dirk Rosenthal; Hendrik Bluhm; Michael Hävecker; Evgenyi Kleimenov; Axel Knop-Gericke; Robert Schlögl; Sven L M Schroeder

doi:10.1021/ja062792o

Dynamic electronic structure of a Au/TiO2 catalyst under reaction conditions

J Am Chem Soc. 2006 Sep 20;128(37):12052-3. doi: 10.1021/ja062792o.

Authors

Elizabeth A Willneff¹, Simon Braun, Dirk Rosenthal, Hendrik Bluhm, Michael Hävecker, Evgenyi Kleimenov, Axel Knop-Gericke, Robert Schlögl, Sven L M Schroeder

Affiliation

¹ Molecular Materials Centre, School of Chemistry, The University of Manchester, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M60 1QD, UK.

PMID: 16967939
DOI: 10.1021/ja062792o

Abstract

The electronic structure of a highly active Au/TiO2 powder catalyst was probed in situ by synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in the 10-1 mbar range. The electronic structure of the Au component was found to respond sensitively to changes in temperature and indicated the absence of bulklike metallic Au under the conditions of highest catalytic activity. Concurrent modification of interfacial sites adjacent to Au on the TiO2 support was not evident from the Ti photoemission, but may have been below the detection limit of XPS.