title: Visualizing gas molecules interacting with supported nanoparticulate catalysts at reaction conditions.
abstract: Understanding how molecules can restructure the surfaces of heterogeneous catalysts under reaction conditions requires methods that can visualize atoms in real space and time. We applied a newly developed aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscopy to show that adsorbed carbon monoxide (CO) molecules caused the {100} facets of a gold nanoparticle to reconstruct during CO oxidation at room temperature. The CO molecules adsorbed at the on-top sites of gold atoms in the reconstructed surface, and the energetic favorability of this reconstructed structure was confirmed by ab initio calculations and image simulations. This atomic-scale visualizing method can be applied to help elucidate reaction mechanisms in heterogeneous catalysis.
authors.affiliation: The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research, Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan.
authors.forename: Hideto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Yasufumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuwauchi
authors.forename: Joerg R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Jinschek
authors.forename: Keju
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Shingo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: Masanori
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kohyama
authors.forename: Satoshi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Masatake
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Haruta
authors.forename: Seiji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takeda