Access to the full text of the published version may require a subscription. Please note that, in the typefaces we use, an italic vee looks like this: n, and a Greek nu looks like this: n.
RightsWe will publish articles on the web as soon as possible after receiving your corrections; no late corrections will be made.Please return your final corrections, where possible within 48 hours of receipt, by e-mail to: pccp@rsc.org.Reprints-Electronic (PDF) reprints will be provided free of charge to the corresponding author. The catalytic activity of cerium dioxide can be modified by deposition of alkaline earth oxide layers or nanoparticles or by substitutional doping of metal cations at the Ce site in ceria. In order to understand the effect of Mg oxide deposition and doping, a combination of experiment and first principles simulations is a powerful tool. In this paper, we examine the interaction of Mg with the ceria (111) surface using both angle resolved X-ray (ARXPS) and resonant (RPES) photoelectron spectroscopy measurements and density functional theory (DFT) corrected for onsite Coulomb interactions (DFT + U). With DFT + U, we also examine the interaction of Mg with the ceria (110) (111) surface. The combined results provide a basis for deeper insights into the catalytic behaviour of ceria-based mixed oxide catalysts.