Calculations of NO reduction with CO over a Cu/PMA single-atom catalyst: a study of surface oxygen species, active sites, and the reaction mechanism

• Published in: Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP 2019-05, Vol.21 (19), p.9975-9986
• Main Authors: Liu, Chun-Guang, Sun, Cong, Jiang, Meng-Xu, Zhang, Li-Long, Sun, Mo-Jie
• Format: Article
• ISSN: 1463-9076; 1463-9084
• DOI: 10.1039/c9cp01092k

Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have been employed to probe the reaction mechanism of NO reduction with CO over a Cu 1 /PMA (PMA is the phosphomolybdate, Cs 3 PMo 12 O 40 ) single-atom catalyst (SAC). Several important aspects of the catalytic system were addressed, including the generation of oxygen vacancies (O v ), formation of N 2 O 2 intermediates, scission of the N-O bond of N 2 O 2 intermediates to form N 2 O or N 2 , and decomposition of N 2 O to form N 2 . Unlike most previous theoretical studies, which tend to explore the reaction mechanism of polyoxometalate (POM) systems based on the isolated anionic unit, here, we build a model of the catalytic system with neutral species by introduction of counter cations to model the solid structure of the Cu 1 /PMA SAC. The major findings of our present study are: (1) CO adsorption on Cu sites leads to the formation of cationic Cu carbonyl species; (2) the O c atom at the surface of the PMA support can easily react with the adsorbed CO to generate a Cu-O v pair; (3) the Cu-O v pair embedded on PMA is found to be the active site, not only for the formation of N 2 O 2 * by the reaction of two NO molecules via an Eley-Rideal pathway but also for the decomposition of N 2 O to form N 2 ; (4) the adsorption of a NO molecule on the Cu-O v pair with a bridging model results in charge transfer from the Cu atom to the π* antibonding orbital of the NO molecule; (5) IR spectroscopy of the key intermediates has been identified based on our DFT calculations; and (6) the Cu atom serves as an electron acceptor in O v formation steps and an electron donor in N 2 O 2 decomposition steps, and thus represents an electron reservoir. These results suggest that the POM-supported SAC with the cheaper Cu element is an efficient catalyst for the reaction between CO and NO. Density functional theory calculations have been employed to probe the reaction mechanism of NO reduction with CO over a Cu 1 /PMA (PMA is the phosphomolybdate, Cs 3 PMo 12 O 40 ) single-atom catalyst.