Abstract
CeO2 cubes with {100} facets, octahedra with {111} facets, and wires with highly defective structures were utilized to probe the structure-dependent reactivity of acetaldehyde. Using temperature-programmed desorption (TPD), temperature-programmed surface reactions (TPSR), and in situ infrared spectroscopy it was found that acetaldehyde desorbs unreacted or undergoes reduction, coupling, or C-C bond scission reactions depending on the surface structure of CeO2. Room temperature FTIR indicates that acetaldehyde binds primarily as η1-acetaldehyde on the octahedra, in a variety of conformations on the cubes, including coupling products and acetate and enolate species, and primarily as coupling products on the wires. The percent consumption of acetaldehyde follows the order of wires > cubes > octahedra. All the nanoshapes produce the coupling product crotonaldehyde; however, the selectivity to produce ethanol follows the order wires ≈ cubes >> octahedra. The selectivity and other differences can be attributed to the variation in the basicity of the surfaces, defects densities, coordination numbers of surface atoms, and the reducibility of the nanoshapes.
