Model Studies in Catalysis

Abstract

We review our approach to model heterogeneous catalysts on the basis of four examples. It is shown that Pd nanoparticles in hydrogenation incorporate hydrogen which turns out to be crucial for the actual hydrogenation step. The second example correlates the structure of vanadia monolayer catalysts with its reactivity in methanol oxidation. Further examples refer to ultrathin oxide film catalysts where the oxide metal interface controls either the charge state of Au particles grown on the film (example 3), and, in the fourth example, the oxide film itself exhibits remarkable CO-oxidation activity which can be traced to a reactive intermediate structure of the ultrathin film.