Remarkable NO oxidation on single supported platinum atoms

Our first-principles density functional theoretical modeling suggests that NO oxidation is feasible on fully oxidized single θ-Al(2)O(3) supported platinum atoms via a modified Langmuir-Hinshelwood pathway. This is in contrast to the known decrease in NO oxidation activity of supported platinum with decreasing Pt particle size believed to be due to increased platinum oxidation. In order to validate our theoretical study, we evaluated single θ-Al(2)O(3) supported platinum atoms and found them to exhibit remarkable NO oxidation activity. A comparison of turnover frequencies (TOF) of single supported Pt atoms with those of platinum particles for NO oxidation shows that single supported Pt atoms are as active as fully formed platinum particles. Thus, the overall picture of NO oxidation on supported Pt is that NO oxidation activity decreases with decreasing Pt particle size but accelerates when Pt is present only as single atoms.