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 Karl Franzens University Graz

Graz University of Technology 

Models for Heterogeneous Catalysts: Complex Materials at the Atomic Level
H.-J. Freund
Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin, Germany
17:00 - 18:00 Tuesday 19 June 2018 KFU HS 05.01

Our understanding of catalysis, and in particular heterogeneous catalysis, is to a large extend based on the investigation of model systems. The enormous success of metal single crystal model surface chemistry, pioneered by physical chemists, is an outstanding example. In-creasing the complexity of the models towards supported nanoparticles, resembling a real disperse metal catalyst, allows one to catch in the model some of the important aspects that cannot be covered by single crystals alone. One of the more important aspects is the support particle interface. We have developed strategies to prepare such model systems based on single crystalline oxide films, which are used as supports for metal, and oxide nanoparticles, which may be studied at the atomic level using the tools developed in surface science.
However, those oxide films may also serve as reaction partners themselves, as they are models for SMSI states of metal catalyst. Using such model systems, we are able to study a number of fundamental questions of potential interest, such as reactivity as a function of particle size and structure, influence of support modification, as well as of the environment, i.e. ultra-vacuum or ambient conditions, onto reactivity