LAUSR

The interface between gold and the support plays a vital role in various catalytic reactions. To investigate its effect on the selective hydrogenation of acetylene over gold catalysts, we deliberately created two different Au–ZnO interfaces by supporting the thiolated Au25 precursor on two ZnO supports with different shapes: one was platelike with polar planes, and the other was needlelike exhibiting nonpolar planes. The particle sizes of gold were controlled with similar average sizes (∼2.5 nm) on the ZnO plate and ZnO needle. The catalytic performance of the Au/ZnO needle for the acetylene hydrogenation reaction was much better than that of the Au/ZnO plate. The characterization results of the in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy showed that the intensity of the adsorption band of CO over the metallic gold was much stronger over the Au/ZnO needle than that on the Au/ZnO plate. Therefore, it could be concluded that the ability of the nonpolar plane in the needlelike ZnO to ...