Probing the bifunctional catalytic activity of ceria nanorods towards the cyanosilylation reaction

Authors

Gonghua Wang, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Lu Wang, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Xiang Fei, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Yunyun Zhou, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Renat F. Sabirianov, University of Nebraska at OmahaFollow
Wai-Ning Mei, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Chin Li Cheung, University of Nebraska at LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2013

Citation

Catal. Sci. Technol., 2013, 3, 2602--2609; DOI: 10.1039/c3cy00196b

Comments

Copyright 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry

Abstract

Ceria nanorods were demonstrated to be an active, bifunctional catalyst for the cyanosilylation of aldehydes. The catalytic activity of ceria was shown to be positively correlated with a decrease in the coordination numbers of neighbouring oxygen atoms around cerium atoms in the catalyst. Chemisorption and density functional theory studies suggested that the coordinatively unsaturated cerium sites exposed by the surface oxygen vacancy defects functioned as Lewis acid sites and the neighbouring oxygen atoms behaved as Lewis base sites in the catalytic cycle.