TY - GEN A1 - Tschammer, Rudi A1 - Buß, Lars A1 - Pożarowska, Emilia A1 - Morales, Carlos A1 - Senanayake, Sanjaya D. A1 - Prieto, Mauricio J. A1 - Tănase, Liviu C. A1 - de Souza Caldas, Lucas A1 - Tiwari, Aarti A1 - Schmidt, Thomas A1 - Niño, Miguel A. A1 - Foerster, Michael A1 - Falta, Jens A1 - Flege, Jan Ingo T1 - High-temperature growth of CeOx on Au(111) and behavior under reducing and oxidizing conditions T2 - The journal of physical chemistry C N2 - Inverse oxide–metal model catalysts can show superior activity and selectivity compared with the traditional supported metal–oxide architecture, commonly attributed to the synergistic overlayer–support interaction. We have investigated the growth and redox properties of ceria nanoislands grown on Au(111) between 700 and 890 °C, which yields the CeO2–Au(111) model catalyst system. We have observed a distinct correlation between deposition temperature, structural order, and oxide composition through low-energy electron microscopy, low-energy electron diffraction, intensity–voltage curves, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Improved structural order and thermal stability of the oxide have been achieved by increasing the oxygen chemical potential at the substrate surface using reactive oxygen (O/O2) instead of molecular O2 during growth. In situ characterization under reducing (H2) and oxidizing atmospheres (O2, CO2) indicates an irreversible loss of structural order and redox activity at high reduction temperatures, while moderate temperatures result in partial decomposition of the ceria nanoislands (Ce3+/Ce4+) to metallic cerium (Ce0). The weak interaction between Au(111) and CeOx would facilitate its reduction to the Ce0 metallic state, especially considering the comparatively strong interaction between Ce0 and Au0. Besides, the higher reactivity of atomic oxygen promotes a stronger interaction between the gold and oxide islands during the nucleation process, explaining the improved stability. Thus, we propose that by driving the nucleation and growth of the ceria/Au system in a highly oxidizing regime, novel chemical properties can be obtained. KW - Inverse oxide-metal model catalysts KW - Ceria nanoislands KW - Growth KW - Redox properties KW - Low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) KW - Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) KW - Intensity–voltage curves KW - X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpcc.4c08072 SN - 1932-7447 VL - 129 IS - 7 SP - 3583 EP - 3594 PB - American Chemical Society (ACS) CY - Washington, DC ER -