Role of hot electrons and metal-Oxide interfaces in surface chemistry and catalytic reactions

Abstract

Recent findings on fundamental mechanisms of energy dissipation and conversion occurring on the surface and at interfaces is reviewed. The various energy dissipation mechanisms and detection schemes for hot electrons were also studied. Hot electron flows generated with a catalytic nanodiode provide insights into the role of electron excitation leading to energy conversion processes. It was found that hot electron flux is well correlated with the turnover rates of catalytic reactions, which suggests possible applications for chemical sensors and novel energy conversion. Together, these findings demonstrate the prevalence of surface ion chemistry across a wide range of heterogeneous reactions and catalyst systems and show that charge transfer and ion chemistry represent one of the fundamental mechanisms of chemical activation on surfaces. In real catalyst systems, tandem reactions occur between the products of covalent and ionic activation pathways