Thermal Dihydrogen Activation by a Closed-Shell AuCeO2(+) Cluster

Laser-ablation-generated AuCeO2(+) and CeO2(+) oxide clusters were mass-selected using a quadrupole mass filter and reacted with H2 in an ion trap reactor at ambient conditions. The reactions were characterized by mass spectrometry and density functional theory calculations. The gold-cerium bimetallic oxide cluster AuCeO2(+) is more reactive in H2 activation than the pure cerium oxide cluster CeO2(+). The gold atom is the active adsorption site and facilitates the heterolytic cleavage of H2 in collaboration with the separated O(2-) ion of the CeO2 support. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of thermal H2 activation by a closed-shell atomic cluster, which provides molecular-level insights into the single gold atom catalysis over metal oxide supports.