Direct simulation evidence of generation of oxygen vacancies at the golden cage au₁₆ and TiO₂ (110) interface for co oxidation

We show Born-Oppenheimer molecular dynamics (BOMD) simulation evidence of the generation of oxygen vacancies at the golden cage Au₁₆ and TiO₂ (110) interface for CO oxidation. Unlike the conventional Langmuir-Hinshelwood (L-H) mechanism, the CO molecule adsorbed at the perimeter Au sites of Au₁₆ tends to attack a nearby lattice oxygen atom on the TiO₂ (110) surface rather than the neighboring co-adsorbed molecular O₂. Our large-scale BOMD simulation provides, to our knowledge, the first real-time demonstration of feasibility of the Mars-van Krevelen (M-vK) mechanism as evidenced by the generation of oxygen vacancies on the TiO₂ surface in the course of the CO oxidation. Furthermore, a comparative study of the CO oxidation at the golden cage Au₁₈ and TiO₂ interface suggests that the L-H mechanism is more favorable than the M-vK mechanism due to higher structural robustness of the Au₁₈ cage. It appears that the selection of either M-vK or L-H mechanism for the CO oxidation is dependent on the structural fluxionality of the Au cage clusters on the TiO₂ support.