Comparison of sulfur interaction with hydrogen on Pt(1 1 1), Ni(1 1 1) and Pt3Ni(1 1 1) surfaces: The effect of intermetallic bonding

Adsorption strengths of hydrogen and sulfur both individually and together as co-adsorbates were investigated on Pt(1 1 1), Ni(1 1 1) and Pt₃Ni(1 1 1) surfaces using density functional theory in order to determine the effect of metal alloying on sulfur tolerance. The adsorption strengths of H and S singly follow the same trend: Ni(1 1 1) > Pt(1 1 1) > Pt₃Ni(1 1 1), which correlates well with the respective d-band center positions of each surface. We find that the main effect of alloying is to distort both the sub-layer structure and the Pt overlayer resulting in a lowered d-band. For all three surfaces, the d-band shifts downward non-linearly as a function of S coverage. Nearly identical decreases in d-band position were calculated for each surface, leading to an expectation that subsequent adsorption of H would scale with surface type similarly to single species adsorption. In contradiction to this expectation, there was no clearly discernable difference between the energies of coadsorbed H on Pt(1 1 1) and Ni(1 1 1) and only a slightly lowered energy on Pt₃Ni(1 1 1). This provides evidence that coadsorbed species in close proximity interact directly through itinerant mobile electrons and through electrostatic repulsion rather than solely through the electronic structure of the surface. The combination of the lowered d-band position (arising from distorted geometry) and direct co-adsorbate interactions on Pt₃Ni(1 1 1) leads to a lower energy barrier for H₂S formation on the surface compared to pure Pt(1 1 1). Thus, alloying Pt with Ni both decreases the likelihood of S adsorption and favors S removal through H₂S formation.