title: Surface Faceting and Reconstruction of Ceria Nanoparticles.
abstract: The surface atomic arrangement of metal oxides determines their physical and chemical properties, and the ability to control and optimize structural parameters is of crucial importance for many applications, in particular in heterogeneous catalysis and photocatalysis. Whereas the structures of macroscopic single crystals can be determined with established methods, for nanoparticles (NPs), this is a challenging task. Herein, we describe the use of CO as a probe molecule to determine the structure of the surfaces exposed by rod-shaped ceria NPs. After calibrating the CO stretching frequencies using results obtained for different ceria single-crystal surfaces, we found that the rod-shaped NPs actually restructure and expose {111} nanofacets. This finding has important consequences for understanding the controversial surface chemistry of these catalytically highly active ceria NPs and paves the way for the predictive, rational design of catalytic materials at the nanoscale.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Chengwu
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9518-1937
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Xiaojuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heißler
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nefedov
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Politecnico, Università di Udine, Via Cotonificio 108-, 33100, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Sara
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5316-1746
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Colussi
authors.affiliation: Institut de Tècniques Energètiques and Centre for Research in Nanoengineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Jordi
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-7447-9582
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Llorca
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento Politecnico, Università di Udine, Via Cotonificio 108-, 33100, Udine, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-1396-4031
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Trovarelli
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Yuemin
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-9963-5473
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Functional Interfaces, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany.
authors.forename: Christof
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1078-3304
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wöll
keywords: CO adsorption; CeO2; faceting; infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS); nanorods