Nanocrystalline CeO₂ Increases the Activity of Au for CO Oxidation by Two Orders of Magnitude

Abstract

The smaller the better: Depositing gold on nanocrystalline particles of cerium oxide, instead of a regular cerium oxide support, increases the activity of the resulting catalyst by two orders of magnitude for the selective oxidation of CO to CO2, even in the presence of H2 (shown schematically).