CHAPTER 14: Infrared Spectroscopic Insights into the Role of the Support in Heterogeneous Gold Catalysis

The catalyst support has been found to play an essential role in catalytic reactions on gold nanoparticles, a conclusion based largely on work related to reducible oxide supports. Relatively less is known about the role of non-reducible oxide and non-oxide supports in gold catalysis. The chapter review the authors’ recent work of the low-temperature CO oxidation reaction catalysed by gold nanoparticles supported on SiO₂ (a non-reducible oxide), FePO₄ (a reducible non-oxide) and LaPO₄ (a non-reducible non-oxide). By utilizing primarily in situ infrared spectroscopy, it was possible to obtain insights into how these unconventional support materials impact gold catalysis by influencing the nature of gold active sites and the dynamics of gold sites during activation and reaction, participating in the reaction, and controlling the reaction pathways and mechanism.