Direct observation of accelerating hydrogen spillover via surface-lattice-confinement effect

Uncovering how hydrogen transfers and what factors control hydrogen conductivity on solid surface is essential for enhancing catalytic performance of H-involving reactions, which is however hampered due to the structural complexity of powder catalysts, in particular, for oxide catalysts. Here, we construct stripe-like MnO(001) and grid-like Mn3O4(001) monolayers on Pt(111) substrate and investigate hydrogen spillover atop. Atomic-scale visualization demonstrates that hydrogen species from Pt diffuse unidirectionally along the stripes on MnO(001), whereas it exhibits an isotropic pathway on Mn3O4(001). Dynamic surface imaging in H-2 atmosphere reveals that hydrogen diffuses 4 times more rapidly on MnO than the case on Mn3O4, which is promoted by one-dimension surface-lattice-confinement effect. Theoretical calculations indicate that a uniform and medium O-O distance favors hydrogen diffusion while low-coordinate surface O atom inhibits it. Our work illustrates the surface-lattice-confinement effect of oxide catalysts on hydrogen spillover and provides a promising route to improve the hydrogen spillover efficiency.