Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide on Atomic Clusters

Carbon monoxide binds to hemoglobin much more tightly than does molecular oxygen, so CO is highly toxic to humans and animals. Oxidation of CO into CO2 is a major solution to removal of carbon monoxide in air purification. CO is also a simple molecule and CO oxidation serves as a prototypical reaction for heterogeneous processes. Atomic clusters composed of limited numbers of atoms are experimentally and theoretically tractable models for heterogeneous catalysis. During the last decade, a number of publications have been devoted to understanding the CO oxidation at a molecular level based on the investigations of gas phase atomic clusters under controlled and well reproducible conditions. In this review, we will go through the reported CO oxidations by gas phase atomic clusters. Advantages, new insights, and problems to be solved involved with the cluster approach for the title reaction will be summarized.