Optimizing the Pt-FeOx Interaction over Atomic Pt/FeOx/CeO2 Catalysts for Improved CO Oxidation Activity

The metal-supported CeO2 catalysts (such as Pt/CeO2) have been considered as the most promising exhaust-treatment catalyst to meet the future emission standard. However, the Pt-O-Ce interface on Pt/CeO2 system seems to over-stabilize the Pt sites to cause low activity for CO oxidation. In this work, by adding Fe oxides, the enhanced Pt-FeOx interaction was formed with the disappearance of the Pt-O-Ce interface, facilitating the electron transfer from the support to the atomically dispersed Pt on the Pt-FeOx interface for the dramatically CO (preferential) oxidation performance. The single-atom Pt/1.5FeO(x)/CeO2 performed the best catalytic activity with a reaction rate of 0.58 s(-1) at 144 degrees C (T-100). Such strategy in resorting the special metal-support interaction to tune the active sites can be extended to other metal-oxide systems for further optimized catalysis.