Design and Preparation of Supported Au Catalyst with Enhanced Catalytic Activities by Rationally Positioning Au Nanoparticles on Anatase

A synergistic effect between individual components is crucial for increasing the activity of metal/metal oxide catalysts. The greatest challenge is how to control the synergistic effect to obtain enhanced catalytic performance. Through density functional theory calculations of model Au/TiO₂ catalysts, it is suggested that there is strong interaction between Au nanoparticles and Ti species at the edge/corner sites of anatase, which is favorable for the formation of stable oxygen vacancies. Motivated by this theoretical analysis, we have rationally prepared Au nanoparticles attached to edge/corner sites of anatase support (Au/TiO₂-EC), confirmed by their HR-TEM images. As expected, this strong interaction is well characterized by Raman, UV–visible, and XPS techniques. Very interestingly, compared with conventional Au catalysts, Au/TiO₂-EC exhibits superior catalytic activity in the oxidations using O₂. Our approach to controlling Au nanoparticle positioning on anatase to obtain enhanced catalytic activity offers an efficient strategy for developing more novel supported metal catalysts.