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Title: Dynamics of Subnanometer Pt Clusters Can Break the Scaling Relationships in Catalysis

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
  2. Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States). Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry; California NanoSystems Institute, Los Angeles, CA (United States)

Scaling relationships in catalysis impose fundamental limitations on the catalyst maximal performance; therefore, there is a continuous hunt for ways of circumventing them. We show that, at the subnano-scale, scaling relationships can be broken through catalyst dynamics. Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), which can be catalyzed by Pt nanoparticles, is used as our study case. Subnanometer gas-phase and graphene-deposited Pt n cluster catalysts are shown to exhibit poor correlation between binding energies of the intermediates, O, OH, and OOH, involved in the scaling relationships for ORR. The effect is due to the highly fluxional behavior of subnanometer clusters, which easily adapt their structures to the bound adsorbates and varying coverage and in some cases even reshape the structure upon changing environment. This fluxional behavior is also commonplace for clusters and contrasts them to extended surfaces, suggesting that breaking scaling relationships is likely a rule more than an exception in nanocluster catalysis.

Research Organization:
Univ. of California, Los Angeles, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); USDOD; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0019152; AFOSR FA9550-16-1-0141; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1492942
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1594250; OSTI ID: 1755383
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Vol. 10; Related Information: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/acs.jpclett.8b03680/suppl_file/jz8b03680_si_001.pdf; ISSN 1948-7185
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 66 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Solid-to-liquid phase transitions of sub-nanometer clusters enhance chemical transformation journal November 2019
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Escaping scaling relationships for water dissociation at interfacial sites of zirconia-supported Rh and Pt clusters journal October 2019