Single‐Atom Rh on High‐Index CeO2 Facet for Highly Enhanced Catalytic CO Oxidation

Reducible oxide-supported noble metal nanoparticles exhibit high activity in catalyzing many important oxidation reactions. However, atom migration under harsh reaction conditions leads to deactivation of the catalyst. Meanwhile, single-atom catalysts demonstrate enhanced stability, but often suffer from poor catalytic activity owing to the ionized surface state. In this work, we address the poor activity and stability issues simultaneously by synthesizing highly active and durable rhodium (Rh) single-atom catalysts through a “wrap-bake-peel” process. The pre-coated SiO2 layer during synthesis of catalyst plays a crucial role in not only protecting CeO2 support against sintering, but also donating electron to weaken the Ce-O bond, producing highly loaded Rh single atoms on the CeO2 support exposed with high-index {420}. Benefiting from the unique electronic structure of CeO2 facets, more oxygen vacancies are generated along with the deposition of more electropositive Rh single atoms, leading to remarkably improved catalytic performance in CO oxidation.