Electronic effects in CO oxidation by nanoparticle catalysts

• We model the size dependence of catalytic activity of nanoparticles.
• The expression for the reaction rate was received by electronic theory.
• The Fermi energy was substituted by ionization energy of nanoclusters.
• The model is in agreement with experiments on gold and silver nanoparticles.

In this work the theoretical model describing non-monotonic size-dependent catalytic activity of nanoparticles regarding the CO oxidation reaction has been proposed. Based on the size dependence of ionization energy in the framework of a liquid-drop model and two stage electronic theory of the CO oxidation it has been demonstrated a volcano-type behavior of reaction rate with respect to the size of nanoparticles, which is qualitatively in agreement with the experiments on silver and gold nanoparticles.

The reaction rate of CO oxidation as a function of size of nanoparticle catalysts.Figure optionsDownload as PowerPoint slide