Designing Multielement nanointerfaces in supported catalysts by ultra small lattice mismatch

Catalysts supported by multiple functional constituents show exceptional catalytic performance, attributed to electron and energy exchanges occurring at the nanointerfaces between different subunits. Herein, the lattice-mismatch mechanism was used to guide the creation of a functional interface between cobalt oxide (CoO) and zinc oxide (ZnO) on a graphene (GN) support. By computing the lattice-mismatch between hexagonal wurtzite CoO (h-CoO) and ZnO, we achieve an exceptionally low value of 0.18 %. This ultra small lattice-mismatch facilitates the formation of interfaces when employing a seed-mediated growth approach, using a colloidal method for catalyst design. In this approach, CoO is expected to grow directly on ZnO particles, rather than on GN, when utilizing the ZnO/GN catalyst as heteroseed. The growth pattern of CoO follows the Frank − van der Merwe (FM) model, leading to the successful preparation of ZnO@CoO/GN. Similarly, ZnO readily interfaces with the CoO surface to form a nanointerface when the ZnO@CoO/GN catalyst is used as the seed. Interestingly, this epitaxial growth process can be repeated multiple times, resulting in increasingly diverse nano-heterostructures. The resulting catalyst exhibits outstanding performance in CO2 hydrogenation reaction due to the presence of dense CoO-ZnO nanointerfaces. The methodology presents a novel concept for the advancement of efficient supported catalysts.