A Discovery of Strong Metal-Support Bonding in Nanoengineered Au-Fe3O4 Dumbbell-like Nanoparticles by in Situ Transmission Electron Microscopy

Abstract

The strength of metal-support bonding in heterogeneous catalysts determines their thermal stability, therefore, a tremendous amount of effort has been expended to understand metal-support interactions. Herein, we report the discovery of an anomalous "strong metal-support bonding" between gold nanoparticles and "nano-engineered" Fe₃O₄ substrates by in situ microscopy. During in situ vacuum annealing of Au-Fe₃O₄ dumbbell-like nanoparticles, synthesized by the epitaxial growth of nano-Fe₃O₄ on Au nanoparticles, the gold nanoparticles transform into the gold thin films and wet the surface of nano-Fe₃O₄, as the surface reduction of nano-Fe₃O₄ proceeds. This phenomenon results from a unique coupling of the size-and shape-dependent high surface reducibility of nano-Fe₃O₄ and the extremely strong adhesion between Au and the reduced Fe₃O₄. This strong metal-support bonding reveals the significance of controlling the metal oxide support size and morphology for optimizing metal-support bonding and ultimately for the development of improved catalysts and functional nanostructures.

Keywords: Heterogeneous catalysis; density functional theory; electron microscopy; gold catalyst; metal−support interaction.