Theoretical studies of CO/Ni(100): Geometry,vibrational frequencies and ionization potentials for the on-top site

The chemisorption of CO on the (100) surface of Ni has been studied using an Ni₁₄ cluster and generalized valence bond (GVB) methods. CO is found to bond perpendicular to the Ni surface with optimized NiC and CO bond distances of 1.94 and 1.15 Å, respectively. The calculated NiCO bond strength is 29.7 kcal (experimental values 30–32 kcal). Vibrational frequencies are calculated to be 401 cm^?1 for NiC stretch, 327 cm^?1 for NiCO bend, and 2129 cm^?1 for CO stretch. This decrease of the CO frequency by 71 cm^?1 from the free molecule value is consistent with experiment based on self-consistent calculations of the positive ion states. We propose a new explanation for the loss of one PES peak upon chemisorption.