Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, Vol.27, No.5, 1153-1158, 2009
A new experimental setup for high-pressure catalytic activity measurements on surface deposited mass-selected Pt clusters
A new experimental setup to study catalytic and electronic properties of size-selected clusters on metal oxide substrates from the viewpoint of cluster-support interaction and to formulate a method for the development of heterogeneous catalysts such as automotive exhaust catalysts has been developed. The apparatus consists of a size-selected cluster source, a photoemission spectrometer, a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), and a high-pressure reaction cell. The high-pressure reaction cell measurements provided information on catalytic properties in conditions close to practical use. The authors investigated size-selected platinum clusters deposited on a TiO2(110) surface using a reaction cell and STM. Catalytic activity measurements showed that the catalytic activities have a cluster-size dependency.
Keywords:catalysts;high-pressure effects;metal clusters;photoelectron spectra;platinum;scanning tunnelling microscopy;sputter deposition;titanium compounds