A combined experimental and theoretical investigation of Ag‐Pt sub‐nanometer clusters as heterogeneous catalysts in the CO→CO2 reaction (COox) is presented. Ag9Pt2 and Ag9Pt3 clusters are size‐selected in the gas phase, deposited on an ultrathin amorphous alumina support, and tested as catalysts experimentally under realistic conditions and by first‐principles simulations at realistic coverage. In situ GISAXS/TPRx demonstrates that the clusters do not sinter or deactivate even after prolonged exposure to reactants at high temperature, and present comparable, extremely high COox catalytic efficiency. Such high activity and stability are ascribed to a synergic role of Ag and Pt in ultranano‐aggregates, in which Pt anchors the clusters to the support and binds and activates two CO molecules, while Ag binds and activates O2, and Ag/Pt surface proximity disfavors poisoning by CO or oxidized species.
We present single-crystal growth and magnetic property studies of telluriumbridged copper spin-1/2 system Ba2CuTeO6. The spin-exchange interaction among copper spins via Cu-O-Te-O-Cu super-superexchange route leads to a novel two-leg spin ladder system. Spin susceptibility χ(T) data indicates that the triclinic Ba2CuTeO6 undergoes a stepwise crossover for exchange couplings revealed by a broad maximum near Tmax~75 K and an anisotropic cusp in ddT(T) at TN~15 K to signify a three dimensional (3D) antiferromagnetic long-range ordering (LRO). The 3D LRO has been suggested from the anisotropic behavior of (T) with strong c-axis spin anisotropy and the signature of spin flop transition from the isothermal magnetization below TN. Analysis of magnetic heat capacity (Cm) at TN~15 K indicates that most of the spin entropy (~92 % ) has already been released above TN, which supports the picture of consecutive spin entropy reduction upon cooling with Te-bridged two-leg spin ladder system with strong intraladder and interladder couplings. Theoretical DFT+U calculations have been performed to search for the ground state magnetic configuration and also to evaluate exchange coupling constants that support the magnetic model deduced from the combined spin susceptibility and crystal structure symmetry analysis. 2 1 0
Adsorption of pre-formed Agn clusters for n = 1 - 8 on a graphite substrate is studied within the density functional theory employing the vdW-DF2 functional to treat dispersion interactions. Top sites above surface layer carbon atoms turn out to be most favorable for a Ag adatom, in agreement with experimental observations. The same feature is observed for clusters of almost all sizes which have the lowest energies when the Ag atoms are positioned over top sites. Most gas phase isomers retain their structures over the substrate, though a couple of them undergo significant distortions. Energetics of the adsorption can be understood in terms of a competition between energy cost of disturbing Ag-Ag bonds in the cluster and energy gain from Ag-C interactions at the surface. Ag3 turns out to be an exceptional candidate in this regard that undergoes significant structural distortion and has only two of the Ag atoms close to surface C atoms in its lowest energy structure.
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