Peculiar surface–interface properties of nanocrystalline ceria–cobalt oxides with enhanced oxygen storage capacity

Peculiar surface-interface properties of nanocrystalline ceria-cobalt oxides were evidenced by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. It was found that cobalt foreign cations modify the surface oxygen vacancies of ceria at the atomic level, inducing the exposure of well-defined reactive faces between the ceria-host and the cobalt oxide interface. These modifications of the surface-interface structure promoted a remarkable increase in the oxygen storage capacity of ceria nanocrystals.