Promotional effect of metal encapsulation on reactivity of iron oxide supported Pt catalysts Original Research Article

We studied reactivity of well-defined Pt model catalysts, supported on crystalline iron oxide Fe3O4(1 1 1) films, in low temperature CO oxidation. It is shown that pre-annealing in vacuum at ∼850 K suppresses CO adsorption but increases CO2 production rate. This finding is rationalised in terms of strong metal–support interaction between Pt and iron oxide resulting in particles encapsulation by a thin FeO(1 1 1) film that catalyses CO oxidation similarly to the extended FeO(1 1 1)/Pt(1 1 1) surfaces previously studied . The results show that the stability and the atomic structure of the encapsulated layer under reaction conditions play a critical role in oxidation reactions over Pt catalysts supported on reducible oxides.