CO self-sustained catalytic combustion over morphological inverse model CeO₂/Cu₂O catalysts exposing (1 0 0), (1 1 1) and (1 1 0) planes

CO self-sustaining catalytic combustion tends to be one of potential means to achieve efficient conversion of off-gases from steelmaking. Building model catalysts to investigate the reaction process academically is essential to design optimized catalysts and Cu₂O exposing (1 0 0), (1 1 1) and (1 1 0) planes are excellent materials. Herein, morphological CeO₂/Cu₂O inverse model catalysts were synthesized to reveal the synergistic effect and reaction mechanism. It is demonstrated that the ignition temperature is lowered on the interface by synergistic effect, which dominates the ignition, while the combustion after ignition is controlled by Cu₂O planes providing abundant lattice oxygen to react with CO. Additionally, exposure of different planes plays a significant role in the reaction since O-termination on (1 0 0) inhibits the interaction, whereas Cu-termination on (1 1 0) surface structure and coordinately unsaturated Cu⁺ on open (1 1 1) surface respectively contribute to their superior catalytic performance.