Abstract
The stability of cerium oxide (ceria) is a major topic in the field of heterogeneous catalysis. When exposed to a reactive environment or treated in a redox step, ceria is prone to changes of its surface morphology, atomic structure, and composition, with a strong impact onto its catalytic properties. Here, we investigate the stability of Pt(111)-supported ultrathin ceria films upon air exposure and during redox cycles under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions. Scanning probe microscopy, X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, and low-energy electron diffraction show that upon air exposure, a clean ceria film surface gets contaminated by hydroxyls and carbon-containing species whereas a following annealing in molecular oxygen at around 650 °C removes such contaminants and allows to restore the original surface morphology and structure. When clean films are oxidized in a background oxygen pressure (reduced in UHV) at ∼650 °C, the film coverage increases (decreases). The decrease of the film coverage upon reduction...
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