Catalytic oxidation of CO on a curved Pt(111) surface : simultaneous ignition at all facets through a transient CO-O complex.

The catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide (CO) on transition metals, such as platinum (Pt), is commonly viewed as a sharp transition from the CO-inhibited surface to the active metal, covered with oxygen (O). However, we find that minor amounts of O are present in the CO-poisoned layer that explain why, surprisingly, CO desorbs at stepped and flat Pt crystal planes at once, regardless of the reaction conditions. Using near-ambient pressure X-ray photoemission and a curved Pt(111) crystal we probe the chemical composition at surfaces with variable step density during the CO oxidation reaction. The systematic analysis of carbon and oxygen core levels across the curved crystal reveals that, right before light-off, subsurface O builds up within (111) terraces. This is key to trigger the simultaneous ignition of the catalytic reaction at different Pt surfaces, as indicated by ab-initio theory: a CO-Pt-O complex is formed that equals the CO chemisorption energy at terraces and steps, leading to the abrupt desorption of poisoning CO from all crystal facets at the same temperature