Unravelling the mechanism of CO2 activation over low-loaded Cu/CeO2(111) catalysts using operando and transient spectroscopies

Abstract

Using operando Raman and UV-vis spectroscopy as well as transient IR spectroscopy, low-loaded Cu/CeO₂(111) catalysts were investigated with respect to their redox behavior and the importance of adsorbates for the reverse water–gas shift (rWGS) reaction. Here it is shown that of two possible mechanisms the redox mechanism is predominant over an associative one.