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The implementation of supported metal catalysts heavily relies on the synergistic interactions between metal nanoparticles and the material they are dispersed on. It is clear that interfacial perimeter sites have outstanding skills for turning catalytic reactions over, however, high activity and selectivity of the designed interface‐induced metal distortion can also obtain catalysts for the most crucial industrial processes as evidenced in this paper. Herein, the beneficial synergy established between designed Pt nanoparticles and MnO in the course of the reverse water gas shift (RWGS) reaction resulted in a Pt/MnO catalyst having ≈10 times higher activity compared to the reference Pt/SBA‐15 catalyst with >99 % CO selectivity. Under activation, a crystal assembly through the metallic Pt (110) and MnO evolved, where the plane distance differences caused a mismatched‐row structure in softer Pt nanoparticles, which was identified by microscopic and surface‐sensitive spectroscopic characterizations combined with density functional theory simulations. The generated edge dislocations caused the Pt lattice expansion which led to the weakening of the Pt−CO bond. Even though MnO also exhibited an adverse effect on Pt by lowering the number of exposed metal sites, rapid desorption of the linearly adsorbed CO species governed the performance of the Pt/MnO in the RWGS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The changes of the surface morphology and the surface chemistry of LSC thin films grown on different substrates were tracked for 100 hours under SOFC operation conditions. Atomic force microscopy was used to monitor the formation of particles at the LSC surface. Depending on the thin film structure (polycrystalline vs. epitaxial), different particle formation dynamics were observed. Electron microscopy was employed to investigate the chemistry of the segregated particles and revealed that the particles were Srand S-rich. Secondary ion mass spectrometry and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements were performed on degraded LSC thin films, which also found significant amounts of sulfur on the LSC surface, despite no deliberate addition of sulfur compounds, as well as A-site cation enrichment. Impedance spectroscopy was used to track the polarization resistance of LSC grown on YSZ over the same degradation period and a strong increase inthe polarization resistance and in its activation energy was revealed (1.09 to 1.73 eV). The experimental results indicate that sulfur adsorption on LSC surfaces is omnipresent in the investigated conditions and even trace amounts of sulfur compounds present in nominally pure measurement gases account for particle formation and multiple degradation effects under operating conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In BiFeO 3 (BFO), Bi 2 O 3 (BO) is a known secondary phase, which can appear under certain growth conditions. However, BO is not just an unwanted parasitic phase but can be used to create the super-tetragonal BFO phase in films on substrates, which would otherwise grow in the regular rhombohedral phase (R-phase). The super-tetragonal BFO phase has the advantage of a much larger ferroelectric polarization of 130-150 μC/cm 2 , which is around 1.5 times the value of the rhombohedral phase with 80-100 μC/cm 2 . Here, we report that the solubility of Ca, which is a common dopant of bismuth ferrite materials to tune their properties, is significantly lower in the secondary BO phase than in the observed R-phase BFO. Starting from the film growth, this leads to completely different Ca concentrations in the two phases. We show this with advanced analytical transmission electron microscopy techniques and confirm the experimental results with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. At the film's fabrication temperature, caused by different solubilities, about 50 times higher Ca concentration is expected in the BFO phase than in the secondary one. Depending on the cooling rate after fabrication, this can further increase since a larger Ca concentration difference is expected at lower temperatures. When fabricating functional devices using Ca doping and the secondary BO phase, the difference in solubility must be considered because, depending on the ratio of the BO phase, the Ca concentration in the BFO phase can become much higher than intended. This can be critical for the intended device functionality because the Ca concentration strongly influences and modifies the BFO properties., Competing Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interest., (© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.)