Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-16DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643
Jiaxin Liang, Yifei Wei, Yani Ge, Yilin Zhou, Jianhua Liao, Lu Ouyang, Renshi Luo
{"title":"Ir-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and N-alkylation of N-heteroarenes with carboxylic acids","authors":"Jiaxin Liang, Yifei Wei, Yani Ge, Yilin Zhou, Jianhua Liao, Lu Ouyang, Renshi Luo","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116643","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the importance of the <em>N</em>-heterocyclics and carboxylic acids, methods for editing these skeletons would be specifically valuable in drug discovery. In this work, we report a tandem Ir-catalyzed transfer hydrogenation and <em>N-</em>alkylation of <em>N</em>-heteroarenes with carboxylic acids as alkylated sources, which efficiently produces a series of <em>N</em>-alkylated tetrahydroquinolines and heterocycles in moderate to excellent yields (up to 96%) under air conditions. A wide range of carboxylic acids, including complex drug molecules and natural products, can be served as alkylated sources and incorporated into <em>N</em>-heteroarenes to afford a variety of useful structure motifs (66 examples). The successful gram-scale transformation, as well as diversification of natural molecules and drugs further highlight the practicality and robustness of this strategy, holding broad potential for the synthesis of bioactive <em>N</em>-alkylated heterocyclics from renewable feedstock.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116643"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787243","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A robust Zr/Hf catalytic system for efficient and highly enantioselective α-hydroxylation of β-keto carbonyls and amides: mechanistic and DFT studies","authors":"Cunfei Ma, Kun Tang, Jingnan Zhao, Yakun Wang, Yufeng Wu, Guofeng Zhao, Huinan Sun, Qilei Liu, Qingwei Meng","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116642","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116642","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>An efficient zirconium/hafnium catalytic system with low loading has been developed for the enantioselective α-hydroxylation of a series of substrates, including five-membered cyclic β-indanone esters, β-keto amides, and challenging 1-indanone-derived β-keto esters, delivering the products in high yields (up to 99%) with excellent enantioselectivities (up to 99% ee). The system also exhibits strong tolerance to variations in temperature and solvent, which ensures high efficiency and a broad substrate scope (42 examples). Its synthetic utility was demonstrated through gram-scale reactions and subsequent derivatization of product 2a. Mechanistic studies and DFT calculations revealed that C–H···π interactions between the substrate and the newly developed Salan ligand, along with π–π stacking with cumene hydroperoxide (CHP), are key to enantiocontrol.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116642"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145787245","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-11-06DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541
Xin Tao , Menglu Wang , Xintai Su , Daoping He , Renchun Yang
{"title":"Ga-Cu promoted charge storage and electron transfer on rutile TiO2 nanorod for enhanced solar water splitting","authors":"Xin Tao , Menglu Wang , Xintai Su , Daoping He , Renchun Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116541","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To address the insufficient of electron activity and low transfer efficiency in rutile TiO<sub>2</sub>, a highly efficient “charge storage and electron transfer center” was introduced for photohydrogen production. Gallium (Ga) serves as an “electron storage center” that captures and stores photogenerated electrons, while copper (Cu) acts as an “electron transfer center” to facilitate low-barrier electron migration. Furthermore, the co-modification with Ga and Cu optimizes the band structure by shifting the conduction band negatively and reducing the band gap, thereby improving the thermodynamics of proton reduction and enhancing the kinetics of visible-light absorption. As a result, the hydrogen production rate of the synthesized TiO<sub>2</sub>(R)-GaCu catalyst reached 10.33 mmol·h<sup>−1</sup>·g<sup>−</sup>1, which is 25 times higher than that of the pristine TiO<sub>2</sub>(R). This work offers a novel approach for designing highly efficient charge storage and electron transfer centers to improve the thermodynamics of proton reduction in photocatalytic hydrogen evolution.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116541"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145447913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The influence of the organic residue and the solvent in the Schlenk equilibrium for Grignard reagents in THF. A molecular dynamics study with machine learning potentials","authors":"Marco Bortoli , Sigbjørn Løland Bore , Odile Eisenstein , Michele Cascella","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116619","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116619","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The Schlenk equilibrium is an essential characteristic of the Grignard reagents. However, its quantitative aspects remain poorly understood. In this work, we perform molecular dynamics simulations to characterise how the Schlenk reaction is affected by varying the alkyl R groups (Me, Et, <em>i</em>-Pr, <em>t</em>-Bu). For each R group, the reactivity profiles were obtained through enhanced sampling on fully solvated dinuclear species, leveraging a newly developed machine learning potential trained on ab initio data. While the topologies of the Helmholtz energy maps are qualitatively similar, the energy ranges vary significantly with the R groups. Bulkier R groups disfavour higher solvation of the magnesium centre, with direct implications for the activation and mechanism of the Schlenk exchange. With respect to dichloro-bridged species, the concentrations of monochloro-bridged and separated species increase with the size of R and the degree of solvation. The energy barrier for ligand exchange increases with the size of R, and it is particularly noticeable for R = <em>t</em>-Bu, in agreement with experimental data. As excess solvation of one of the magnesium centres is associated with the most important reaction pathways, it can be deduced that early formation of monochloro-bridged species favours the Cl/R exchange, especially for large R groups. The formation of these species is favoured by higher Mg solvation for small R groups, and by the steric volume of R itself for large R, pointing at a constructive effect of the solvent and R promoting Cl/R exchange. Our study shows that a full characterisation of the speciation of Grignard reagents in solution is possible at reasonable computational costs with machine-learning potentials.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116619"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145705074","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-05DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616
Fengyi Wang, Hong Li, Shenshen Zhang, Bin Duan, Niu Huang, Yong Zheng, Binbin Jia, Siran Xu, Wei Liu, Liqun Ye
{"title":"Protonation-enhanced H2O2 electrosynthesis: high-selectivity and high-yield with a noble-metal-free CTF/BHN composite","authors":"Fengyi Wang, Hong Li, Shenshen Zhang, Bin Duan, Niu Huang, Yong Zheng, Binbin Jia, Siran Xu, Wei Liu, Liqun Ye","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116616","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The development of non-noble metal catalysts with high activity and selectivity is critical for the electrocatalytic production of hydrogen peroxide (H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub>). Herein, we report a composite catalyst (CTF/BHN) fabricated by chelating a basic bismuth salt (BHN) with a bipyridine-containing covalent triazine framework (CTF), forming strong Bi-bipyridine bonds at the interface. This catalyst exhibits exceptional H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> selectivity (92–98 %) over a wide potential range (0.3–0.62 V vs. RHE). In H-type cell tests, it achieves a Faraday efficiency of 88.9 % at 20 mA cm<sup>−2</sup>, with a high H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> production rate of 1.65 mol g<sup>−1</sup>h<sup>−1</sup>, and maintains stable performance for 42 h. In-situ attenuated total reflection surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (ATR-SEIRAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveal that the superior performance stems from synergistic interfacial effects: electron transfer from BHN to CTF enhances charge transport, while polarized interfaces promote water dissociation and protonation of pyridine groups in CTF to form Py*H intermediates. Py*H acts as a proton relay, facilitating the protonation of adsorbed *O<sub>2</sub> to *OOH at Bi active sites. Concurrently, the enhanced interaction between *OOH and the catalyst surface (evidenced by the blue-shifted *OOH peak) stabilizes *OOH and suppresses its dissociation, thereby driving the 2e<sup>−</sup> ORR pathway for efficient H<sub>2</sub>O<sub>2</sub> generation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116616"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145690082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-04DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614
Hui Fan , Jia-Ao Huang , Xia-Guang Zhang , Yan-Bo Hua , Yuan-Hao Li , Kun Jiang , Hong Li , Tian-Wen Jiang , Wen-Bin Cai
{"title":"Electronic and geometric structure engineered copper sites enhance *CO and *OH co-adsorption for CO2 electroreduction to C2+ products","authors":"Hui Fan , Jia-Ao Huang , Xia-Guang Zhang , Yan-Bo Hua , Yuan-Hao Li , Kun Jiang , Hong Li , Tian-Wen Jiang , Wen-Bin Cai","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116614","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) is one of the state-of-the-art catalysts for electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO<sub>2</sub>RR) to multi-carbon (C<sub>2+</sub>) products, but it generally suffers from the active site degradations during reconstruction. Herein, we propose an integrative strategy to simultaneously modulate electronic and geometric structure of Cu active sites, i.e., the valence state and coordination environment. By employing a dual-valence Cu (DV-Cu) oxysalt as the precursor, we constructed a reduced DV-Cu (RDV-Cu) catalyst, which features abundant Cu<sup>δ+</sup> and undercoordinated Cu species, representing electronic and geometric structure engineered active sites, respectively. Comprehensive characterizations reveal that, compared to Cu<sub>2</sub>O-derived RCu<sub>2</sub>O, RDV-Cu not only preserves a higher concentration of electronically active Cu<sup>δ+</sup> species but also introduces more geometrically active undercoordinated Cu sites. Benefiting from these structural advantages, RDV-Cu achieves a maximum Faradaic efficiency for C<sub>2+</sub> products of 72.3 % at –1.1 V in an H-cell, and 82.8 % at −400 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> in a flow cell, significantly outperforming RCu<sub>2</sub>O. <em>In situ</em> vibrational spectroscopic studies disclose a high surface coverage of *CO and *OH induced by the Cu<sup>δ+</sup> and undercoordinated in RDV-Cu, which enhances the C–C coupling reaction. This work proposes a new strategy for fabricating high-performance OD-Cu catalysts and reveals a structure-adsorbate-performance relationship for promoting the formation of C<sub>2+</sub> products.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116614"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145674278","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-13DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635
M. Carmen Borrallo-Aniceto , Laura González-Aguilera , Maria Luisa Ferrer , Urbano Díaz , Marta Iglesias , Eva M. Maya
{"title":"Tailoring the structure and photocatalytic properties of [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (BTBT)-based porous organic polymers","authors":"M. Carmen Borrallo-Aniceto , Laura González-Aguilera , Maria Luisa Ferrer , Urbano Díaz , Marta Iglesias , Eva M. Maya","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The organic semiconductor [1]benzothieno[3,2-b][1]benzothiophene (BTBT) has been incorporated into porous organic polymers to create heterogeneous photocatalysts with tunable structural and electronic properties. In this study, four BTBT-based polymeric networks, BTBT-HCP, BTBT-CTF, BTBT-CMP, and BTBT-PAF were synthesized using different strategies, including Friedel–Crafts reactions and palladium-catalyzed cross-coupling methods. The resulting materials exhibited distinct thermal and optical properties, with the latter showing a strong correlation with their catalytic performance. All four photocatalysts were evaluated in the photooxidation of aromatic alcohols. Among them, BTBT-CTF, which has direct bonds between the BTBT and triazine units, demonstrated the highest efficiency and was further employed in a one-pot, two-step reaction for the photooxidative synthesis of benzimidazoles. This process combined the initial photooxidation of aromatic alcohols with a subsequent condensation with o-phenylenediamine without isolating the intermediate aldehyde. These results highlight the potential of BTBT-based materials for sustainable photooxidations and light-driven heterocyclic synthesis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116635"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145731743","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116659
Yanqi Huang, Xiang Ryan Zhou, Brandon C. Bukowski
{"title":"Microkinetic modeling of methane activation in Mo/ZSM-5 with machine learning potentials","authors":"Yanqi Huang, Xiang Ryan Zhou, Brandon C. Bukowski","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116659","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116659","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Mo/ZSM-5 catalyzes methane dehydroaromatization (MDA), yet the role of entropy on reactive intermediates and transition states remain unresolved. At reaction temperatures of 1000 K, the entropic contributions to the Gibbs free energy of reactive intermediates and transition states are challenging to model and can have consequences for predicting reaction kinetics and steady state coverages. The structure and distribution of active sites during MDA turnovers is complex and here we investigate the simplest ion-exchanged Mo carbide active site in ZSM-5 to isolate how entropy models affect methane activation. We consider two pathways: a C–C coupling pathway that forms ethylene after sequential methane dehydrogenation, and a MoC regeneration pathway that directly forms ethylene then reconstitutes [MoC]<sup>2+</sup> sites. The harmonic oscillator approximation and partition function methods that assign hindered translational and rotational motions to low frequency modes were used to compute entropies at 1000 K. We then applied molecular dynamics using a machine learned potential (MLP) to obtain activation free energies for methane activation and hydrogen association via well-tempered metadynamics. Monte Carlo integration using an MLP was used to explicitly calculate translational and rotational entropy contributions for adsorbed methane. By comparing different entropy models, we demonstrate that translational and rotational modes are necessary for weakly adsorbed intermediates. Mean-field microkinetic modeling was used to quantify reaction orders and apparent activation energies for different entropy approximations. On this mononuclear MoC site, C–C coupling of unsaturated carbon intermediates is kinetically favored for direct ethylene formation, and the apparent kinetics depend on the entropy model. This manuscript demonstrates how MLPs in conjunction with enhanced sampling and Monte Carlo integration can inform entropy approaches in a reaction network to be integrated into microkinetic models.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116659"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145813456","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116654
Francisco Gonell , Carmen Tébar-Soler , Sergio Díaz-Coello , Elena Pastor , Avelino Corma , Patricia Concepción
{"title":"H2 production at positive potentials with a stable and bifunctional Ru0-RuO2Cy electrocatalyst","authors":"Francisco Gonell , Carmen Tébar-Soler , Sergio Díaz-Coello , Elena Pastor , Avelino Corma , Patricia Concepción","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116654","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116654","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Developing highly efficient and earth-abundant catalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is essential to produce hydrogen (H<sub>2</sub>) as a sustainable energy vector, providing an alternative to fossil fuels. Promoting HER in basic media remains challenging due to the lower proton availability compared to acidic conditions. Herein, we report the synthesis of partially carbon-coated, ruthenium-based materials with carefully controlled synthesis parameters that modulate the concentrations of metallic Ru⁰ and ruthenium oxycarbonate (RuO<sub>2</sub>C<sub>y</sub>). These materials exhibit impressive electrocatalytic performance in HER, with overpotentials required to reach a current density of 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> (versus RHE) as low as 37 mV in acidic and 7 mV in basic media. The high efficiency observed in basic media was further characterized using differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) and in situ Raman spectroscopy, revealing H<sub>2</sub> production at positive potentials. This phenomenon may result from local pH changes facilitated by efficient water deprotonation on ruthenium species with intermediate oxidation states. In addition to high activity, the most efficient material demonstrated excellent stability, with no significant deactivation during chronopotentiometry experiments at 10 mA cm<sup>−2</sup> for 40 h. This work underscores the importance of precise material design in developing effective electrocatalysts for HER.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116654"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145813458","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Journal of CatalysisPub Date : 2026-02-01Epub Date: 2025-12-22DOI: 10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116655
Zi-Qiao Xue , Yingqi Wang , Gui-Chang Wang
{"title":"Co-induced copper clusters formation on Cu(1 0 0) and its application in the water–gas shift reaction: First-principles based kinetic simulation","authors":"Zi-Qiao Xue , Yingqi Wang , Gui-Chang Wang","doi":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116655","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.jcat.2025.116655","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recently surface science studies have demonstrated that reactant atmospheres such as CO can significantly induce the formation of nanoclusters on catalyst surfaces. As a key reaction for regulating the CO/H<sub>2</sub> ratio to achieve hydrogen production and purification, the active sites of the water–gas shift reaction (WGSR) are likely located within these dynamically formed clusters. To investigate the role of nanoclusters as potential active sites in low-temperature catalytic reactions, our study employs density functional theory combined with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations to systematically examine the dynamic formation of CO-induced copper clusters on Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) surfaces and their impact on WGSR. The CO-induced copper nanocluster formation on Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) was assumed into three steps: the detachment of copper atoms, diffusion of copper atom and the aggregation of copper atoms. The kinetic Monte Carlo simulations successfully reproduce the experimentally observed <strong><em>three-atom-wide copper nanorod structures(</em>i.e.<em>,Cu<sub>3n/</sub></em></strong>Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0)<strong><em>)</em></strong> at rom temperature, and reveal that high-density copper clusters tend to aggregate under WGSR conditions, leading to a reduction in the number of low-coordination copper atoms. By constructing Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) and Zn-doped Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) models and employing mean-field microkinetic modeling, we demonstrate that, compared to Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0), both Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) and Zn-doped Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) exhibit significantly enhanced OH adsorption while maintaining comparable CO adsorption energies. Moreover, the activation energy for water dissociation on these cluster-modified surfaces is lower than that on Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0). Further microkinetic analysis reveals that the WGSR activity follows the order: Zn-doped Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) > Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) > Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0), with the turnover frequency (TOF) of Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) showing good agreement with experimental results. The high activity of activity Zn-doped Cu<sub>3n</sub>/Cu(1<!--> <!-->0<!--> <!-->0) is attributed to the reduced activation energy for water dissociation due to the stable <strong><em>Zn-Cu interface</em></strong>.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":346,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Catalysis","volume":"454 ","pages":"Article 116655"},"PeriodicalIF":6.5,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145814069","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}