Ceria-based supports are widely used in heterogeneous catalysis mainly due to their redox properties and the resulting oxygen storage capacity. During the last decades, studies involving well-defined ceria surfaces of model catalysts have been combined with computational modeling of extended surfaces based on the Density Functional Theory (DFT), successfully characterizing the interaction of different molecular adsorbates or metal species with these systems. Nevertheless, as happens with some other materials, the properties of ceria are seen to change dramatically at the nanoscale. To study nanostructured ceria, representative nano-sized particle models were generated by means of global optimization techniques involving DFT-methods and interionic potentials.[1] These models were thereafter used to investigate the interaction of nanostructured ceria with Pt species in combination with experimental techniques involving model systems. The focus of these studies has also been on the peculiarities with respect to having an extended surface of ceria as a support.
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