Abstract
Copper-based nanocatalysts are essential for efficient electroreduction of CO2 toward hydrocarbon fuels. Nucleation, growth, and stability of copper nanoclusters on hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) films on a Pt(110) substrate were studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. We find that the h-BN/Pt(110) Moiré superstructure has a relatively weak templating effect, visible only at very low coverages of copper. Upon postannealing cluster ripening is observed─with increasing temperature the spherical-cap-like clusters grow in both width and height, preserving a constant aspect ratio. Intercalated islands were never observed, not even after annealing to 970 K. Small copper clusters are found to exhibit a local work function lower than that of low-index single-crystalline copper surfaces.
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