Strong metal-support interactions between highly dispersed Cu plus species and ceria via mix-MOF pyrolysis toward promoted water-gas shift reaction

The modulation of metal-support interfacial interaction is significant but challenging in the design of high-efficiency and high-stability supported catalysts. Here, we report a synthetic strategy to upgrade Cu-CeO2 interfacial interaction by the pyrolysis of mixed metal-organic framework (MOF) structure. The obtained highly dispersed Cu/CeO2-MOF catalyst via this strategy was used to catalyze water-gas shift reaction (WGSR), which exhibited high activity of 40.5 lmolCO gcat.(1)(cac) s(-1) at 300 degrees C and high stability of about 120 h. Based on comprehensive studies of electronic structure, pyrolysis strategy has significant effect on enhancing metal-support interaction and then stabilizing interfacial Cu+ species under reaction conditions. Abundant Cu+ species and generated oxygen vacancies over Cu/CeO2-MOF catalyst played a key role in CO molecule activation and H2O molecule dissociation, respectively. Both collaborated closely and then promoted WGSR catalytic performance in comparison with traditional supported catalysts. This study shall offer a robust approach to harvest highly dispersed catalysts with finely-tuned metal-support interactions for stabilizing the most interfacial active metal species in diverse heterogeneous catalytic reactions. (c) 2024 Science Press and Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Published by ELSEVIER B.V. and Science Press. All rights reserved.