Unraveling the Intermediates for the Water-gas Shift Reaction at the Oxide/Metal Interface

The WGS reaction over highly active catalysts, composed of CeOx nanoparticles dispersed on Cu(111) and Au(111), was investigated. By combining in-situ experimental results with DFT calculations, it is shown that the activation of the associative pathway at the metal-oxide interface induces a dramatic increase in reactivity.