On the Role of Oxygen Defects in the Catalytic Performance of Zinc Oxide

摘要

Metal oxides are highly important as components in heterogeneous catalysts.It is also well established that as the building blocks of nanoscaled materials get smaller,surfaces become increasingly important in determining their properties.Very early on.researchers found that catalytic activity is only indirectly related to the surface area;in fact it depends on the density of active sites.Although solid-state defects have been proposed to be the active sites in heterogeneous catalysis,active centers have rarely been conclusively identified and the rational design of catalysts is still out of reach.