(198f) Dynamics of Catalyst Surface Structure

The surface structure of a heterogeneous catalyst is dynamic and susceptible to modification by various perturbations, including pressure changes, interactions with reactant, temperature variation, photoirradiation, and electrochemical potential. These surface structure dynamics have been widely observed on thermal catalysts, photocatalysts, and electrocatalysts, highlighting the transient nature of catalyst surfaces under reaction or catalytic conditions. A crucial feature of heterogeneous catalysts is the significant difference between the surface structure of a pristine catalyst—as prepared or before catalysis—and its actual surface structure during catalysis. This disparity creates an information gap, referred to as the structural gap, which represents the missing correlation between the known structure of pristine catalysts and the actual structure of these catalysts under a specific catalytic condition of a chosen reaction. In this talk, I will brief on the surface structure dynamics of various metal catalysts. I will discuss the elementary steps of surface restructuring of metal catalysts and the mechanisms governing surface structure dynamics on metal catalysts at an atomic scale, providing deep mechanistic insight on how catalysts evolve under reaction and catalytic conditions. I will brief the consequences of these surface structure dynamics and how these insights of surface structure dynamics can be leveraged to design novel catalysts and promote catalytic performance.