Oxygen Vacancies and Catalysis on Ceria Surfaces

Abstract
Oxygen vacancies on cerium oxide surfaces play a crucial role in catalysts for automotive exhaust treatment and the hydrogen economy. In their Perspective, Campbell and Peden describe new work ( Esch et al.) that uses scanning tunneling microscopy combined with density functional theory to reveal the geometric and electronic structure of these oxygen vacancies. Their structure suggests a mechanism for the rather surprising zirconia promotion of ceria catalysts.