Chemical Reactivity of Supported ZnO Clusters: Undercoordinated Zinc and Oxygen Atoms as Active Sites.

ABSTRACT: The growth of ZnO clusters supported by ZnO-bilayers on Ag(111) and the interaction of these oxide nanostructures with water have been studied by a multi-technique approach combining temperature-dependent infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), grazing-emission X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations. Our results reveal that the ZnO bilayers exhibiting graphite-like structure are chemically inactive for water dissociation, whereas small ZnO clusters formed on top of these well-defined, yet chemically passive supports show extremely high reactivity - water is dissociated without an apparent activation barrier. Systematic isotopic substitution experiments using H₂ ¹⁶ O/D₂ ¹⁶ O/D₂ ^18<

SUBMITTER: Yu X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7756222 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature