Highly selective, facile NO2 reduction to NO at cryogenic temperatures on hydrogen precovered gold

Ming Pan, Hyung Chul Ham, Wen Yueh Yu, Gyeong S. Hwang, C. Buddie Mullins

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

10 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have discovered that NO2 is reduced to NO at 77 K by hydrogen precovered gold in vacuum. Here, we investigate the partial reduction of NO2 to NO on an atomic-hydrogen populated model gold catalyst for a more fundamental understanding of the surface chemistry of hydrogenation. Gold-based catalysts have been found to be active for many hydrogenation reactions, but few related fundamental studies have been conducted. Our experimental results reveal a high catalytic activity for gold: indeed, NO 2 is reduced to NO with 100% conversion and 100% selectivity at temperatures lower than 120 K. Density functional theory calculations and reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy measurements indicate that HNO 2 and N2O3 are intermediates which are highly dependent on surface hydrogen concentrations; subsequent hydrogenation of HNO2 and dissociation of N2O3 upon annealing induces the production of NO and H2O.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)436-442
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume135
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 9 Jan 2013

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