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Continuity of reaction kinetics across the pressure and materials gaps in CO oxidation on FeO–Pt interfaces

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Abstract

Translating atomic-scale insights from surface science studies of model catalysts to practical powder catalysts remains a persistent challenge in heterogeneous catalysis. Here we demonstrate mechanistic continuity across the pressure and materials gaps during CO oxidation at the FeO–Pt interface using in situ microscopy, spectroscopy and computational modelling. Under reaction conditions, coordinatively unsaturated Fe (Fecus) sites at the interface enable selective O2 activation on CO-saturated surfaces, circumventing the CO-poisoning limitation of platinum-group metals. We identify parallel reaction pathways involving the *O2–*CO intermediate. Remarkably, activation energies remain consistent at 12–15 kJ mol−1 (0.12–0.16 eV) from ultrahigh vacuum to atmospheric pressures and from FeO/Pt(111) model catalysts to FeO/Pt powder catalysts, validating mechanistic insights derived from surface science studies. Our findings show an example of bridging the long-standing divide between model and practical catalyst systems, establishing an effective approach to capture catalytic behaviours under operational conditions and advancing mechanism-driven catalyst design.

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Fig. 1: FeO island on Pt(111) and the interaction between O2, CO and the interface.
Fig. 2: Theoretical modelling of CO oxidation at the FeO–Pt interface.
Fig. 3: In situ STM images of a CO-saturated FeO/Pt(111) surface during O2 titration.
Fig. 4: Reaction kinetics of low-temperature CO oxidation at the FeO–Pt interface.

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The data that support the key findings of this study are provided in the Supplementary Information. Other data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22525203 (F.Y.), M-0384 (F.Y.), 92477132 (Y.L.), 22376194 (Y.L.), 22372158 (Y.N.)) and the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFA1503802, F.Y.). We are grateful for support from the Analytical Instrumentation Center at ShanghaiTech University, from BL02B01 of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility, and from the lab-based SPECS AP-XPS instrument supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (11227902 (Z.L.)). Theoretical calculations were performed at Brookhaven National Laboratory, which was supported by the US Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Chemical Sciences, Biosciences and Geosciences, under contract number DE-SC0012704 (BNL FWP CO-040, P.L.). DFT calculations in this work were performed using computational resources at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven National Laboratory under contract number DE-SC0012704 (P.L.), and at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, supported by the Office of Science of the DOE under contract DE-AC02-05CH11231 (P.L.), and at the Stony Brook University, funded by National Science Foundation grant number 1531492 (P.L.). We thank Y. Cao and Z. Zhang for helpful discussions and H. Qiu for providing the IRAS platform.

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X.B. and F.Y. conceived and supervised the project. W.S. conducted model catalytic tests and data analysis. W.S. and L.Z. performed t-IR experiments and data analysis. Y.N., Y.L., Y.Z., Q.L., H.C. and B.Z. carried out STM experiments and data analysis. F.Y., Y.L. and W.S. conducted HREELS experiments and data analysis. X.Y., W.S., W.M. and X.W. performed IRAS experiments and data analysis. W.L. and L.Y. conducted DFT calculations and kMC simulations. M.C., Q.F., P.L., F.Y. and X.B. contributed to the discussion and analysis of experimental results. W.S., Y.N., W.L., X.Y., B.Z., P.L., F.Y. and X.B. analysed the data and prepared the initial draft. F.Y. and X.B. constructed and wrote the paper.

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Correspondence to Ping Liu, Fan Yang or Xinhe Bao.

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Shao, W., Ning, Y., Liao, W. et al. Continuity of reaction kinetics across the pressure and materials gaps in CO oxidation on FeO–Pt interfaces. Nat Catal 9, 37–47 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41929-025-01464-w

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