Density functional study of hypophosphite adsorption on Ni (1 1 1) and Cu (1 1 1) surfaces

Surface structures and electronic properties of hypophosphite, H₂PO₂⁻, molecularly adsorbed on Ni(1 1 1) and Cu(1 1 1) surfaces are investigated in this work by density functional theory at B3LYP/6-31++g(d, p) level. We employ a four-metal-atom cluster as the simplified model for the surface and have fully optimized the geometry and orientation of H₂PO₂⁻ on the metal cluster. Six stable orientations have been discovered on both Ni (1 1 1) and Cu (1 1 1) surfaces. The most stable orientation of H₂PO₂⁻ was found to have its two oxygen atoms interact the surface with two PO bonds pointing downward. Results of the Mulliken population analysis showed that the back donation from 3d orbitals of the transition metal substrate to the unfilled 3d orbital of the phosphorus atom in H₂PO₂⁻ and 4s orbital's acceptance of electron donation from one lone pair of the oxygen atom in H₂PO₂⁻ play very important roles in the H₂PO₂⁻ adsorption on the transition metals. The averaged electron configuration of Ni in Ni₄ cluster is 4s^0.634p^0.023d^9.35 and that of Cu in Cu₄ cluster is 4s^1.004p^0.033d^9.97. Because of this subtle difference of electron configuration, the adsorption energy is larger on the Ni surface than on the Cu surface. The amount of charge transfers due to above two donations is larger from H₂PO₂⁻ to the Ni surface than to the Cu surface, leading to a more positively charged P atom in Ni_nH₂PO₂⁻ than in Cu_nH₂PO₂⁻. These results indicate that the phosphorus atom in Ni_nH₂PO₂⁻ complex is easier to be attacked by a nucleophile such as OH⁻ and subsequent oxidation of H₂PO₂⁻ can take place more favorably on Ni substrate than on Cu substrate.     

First-principles calculations of C diffusion through the surface and subsurface of Ag/Ni(1 0 0) and reconstructed Ag/Ni(1 0 0)

Density functional theory calculations are performed to investigate the C diffusion through the surface and subsurface of Ag/Ni(1 0 0) and reconstructed Ag/Ni(1 0 0). The calculated geometric parameters indicate the center of doped Ag is located above the Ni(1 0 0) surface owing to the size mismatch. The C binding on the alloy surface is substantially weakened, arising from the less attractive interaction between C and Ag atoms, while in the subsurface, the C adsorption is promoted as the Ag coverage is increased. The effect of substitutional Ag on the adsorption property of Ni(1 0 0) is rather short-range, which agrees well with the analysis of the projected density of states. Seven pathways are constructed to explore the C diffusion behavior on the bimetallic surface. Along the most kinetically favorable pathway, a C atom hops between two fourfold hollow sites via an adjacent octahedral site in the subsurface of reconstructed Ag/Ni(1 0 0). The “clock” reconstruction which tends to improve the surface mobility, is more favorable on the alloy surface because the c(2 × 2) symmetry is inherently broken by the Ag impurity. As a consequence, the local lattice strain induced by the C transport is effectively relieved by the Ag-enhanced surface mobility and the C diffusion barrier is lowered from 1.16 to 0.76 eV.     

Theoretical study of Ni adsorption on the GaN(0 0 0 1) surface

First-principles pseudo-potential calculations within density-functional theory framework are performed in order to study the structural and electronic properties of nickel adsorption and diffusion on a GaN(0 0 0 1)-2×2 surface. The adsorption energies and potential energy surfaces are investigated for a Ni adatom on the Ga-terminated (0 0 0 1) surface of GaN. This surface is also used to study the effect of the nickel surface coverage. The results show that the most stable positions of a Ni adatom on GaN(0 0 0 1) are at the H₃ sites and T₄ sites, for low and high Ni coverage respectively. In addition, confirming previous experimental results, we have found that the growth of Ni monolayers on the GaN(0 0 0 1) surface is possible.     

First-principles study on exchange force image of NiO(0 0 1) surface using a ferromagnetic Fe probe

Exchange force of a ferromagnetic Fe probe on antiferromagnetic NiO(0 0 1) surface has been investigated by means of a first-principles calculation. Calculated exchange force images show a clear spin image when the probe is located within 1 Å above the contact point. We can see antiferromagnetic pattern of the surface Ni atoms along the [1 1 0] direction, and asymmetric feature around surface O sites. The main contrast of Ni comes from the direct exchange interaction between the Fe probe and the surface Ni atom, while the asymmetric image possibly comes from the super exchange interaction between the Fe probe and the second layer Ni atom via the surface O. Such asymmetric feature is a key proof of the exchange force microscope image on observation.     

Assessment of competing mechanisms of the abstraction of hydrogen from CH4 on Li/MgO(0 0 1)

First-principles calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT)-pseudopotential method with plane wave basis sets are used to study the energetics of H abstraction from CH₄ on the Li-doped MgO(0 0 1) surface. Experimental work has led to the proposal of two competing mechanisms for the reaction: either direct interaction of CH₄ with an O⁻ hole state bound to the Li dopant, or interaction of CH₄ with a surface F-centre whose charge state is modified by the presence of the dopant. The calculations are performed in periodically repeated slab geometry, with attention given to system-size errors. For direct interaction with the hole state, the calculations indicate that the reaction is weakly endothermic, by about 0.2 eV, but for the F-centre mechanism it is endothermic by over 1 eV. Even allowing for likely DFT errors of a few tenths of an electron volt, this gives strong evidence against the F-centre mechanism.     

Surface and subsurface oxide formation on Ni(1 0 0) and Ni(1 1 1)

The oxidation of Ni(1 0 0) and Ni(1 1 1) at elevated temperatures and large oxygen exposures, typical of the methods used in the preparation of NiO(1 0 0) films for surface studies, has been investigated by medium energy ion scattering (MEIS) using 100 keV H⁺ incident ions. Oxide film growth proceeds significantly faster on Ni(1 1 1) than on Ni(1 0 0), but on both surfaces oxide penetration occurs to depths significantly greater than 100 Å with total exposures of 1200 and 6000 L respectively. The metal/oxide interface is extremely rough, with metallic Ni extending to the surface, even for much thicker oxide films on Ni(1 1 1). On Ni(1 1 1), NiO growth occurs with the (1 0 0) face parallel to the Ni(1 1 1) surface and the close-packed 〈1 1 0〉 directions parallel. On Ni(1 0 0) the MEIS blocking curves cannot be reconciled with a single orientation of NiO(1 0 0) (with the 〈1 1 0〉 directions parallel) on the surface, but is consistent with the substantial orientational disorder (including tilt) previously identified by spot-profile analysis LEED.     

Structure of the hydrogen stabilized MgO(1 1 1)-(1 × 1) surface from low energy electron diffraction (LEED)

A structural study has been performed on the MgO(1 1 1)-(1 × 1) surface by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) using experimental data obtained with a delay-line-detector LEED (DLD-LEED) system to minimize electron damage. It was found that the surface is terminated by a hydroxide layer with the top O-Mg interlayer spacing equal to 1.02 Å, which is close to the spacings between Mg and O planes in bulk brucite crystals (Mg(OH)₂). This is in good agreement with a recent study using photoelectron diffraction (PhD) spectroscopy and density functional theory calculation (DFT) [V.K. Lazarov, R. Plass, H.-C. Poon, D.K. Saldin, M. Weinert, S.A. Chambers, M. Gajdardziska-Josifovska, Phys. Rev. B 71 (2005) 115434]. The second interlayer spacing shows a small expansion of 3% and the third is bulk-like, while the DFT calculation predicted that the spacings below the top one are all bulk-like. This result clearly favors hydroxylation [K. Refson, R.A. Wogelius, D.G. Fraser, M.C. Payne, M.H. Lee, V. Milman, Phys. Rev. B 52 (1995) 10823] as a way of stabilizing the MgO(1 1 1) surface at low temperature over metallization, which has a top layer spacing of 0.86 Å for O termination and 1.25 Å for Mg termination [Lazarov et al. 2005; T. Tsukada, T. Hoshino, Phys. Soc. Jpn. 51 (1982) 2562, J. Goniakowski, C. Noguera, Phys. Rev. B 60 (1999) 16120].     

Density-functional study of the CO adsorption on ferromagnetic Co(0 0 0 1) and Co(1 1 1) surfaces

The regular CO overlayers at coverage θ = 1/3 adsorbed on the (0 0 0 1) surface of hcp Co and (1 1 1) surface of fcc Co are studied by first-principles density-functional theory with the exchange-correlation component in the PBE form. Adsorption in atop, bridge, and three-fold hcp or fcc position are considered. The adsorption energies, CO stretching frequencies, geometry, work function, and local magnetic moments are studied, and, when possible, compared with experimental or theoretical data. Particularly, we show that the recently proposed correction to adsorption energy of CO prefers correctly the atop adsorption site, whereas the remaining sites are almost degenerate in energy. The CO molecule lowers magnetization on neighbouring Co atoms, and the effect decreases with the adsorption site coordination. We show, however, that this trend is not the result of the different C-Co separation at different adsorption sites. A very small magnetic moment appears on CO that couples antiferromagnetically to Co. Most results are very similar for the Co(0 0 0 1) and Co(1 1 1) surfaces.     

Density functional theory investigation of CN on Cu(1 1 1), Ni(1 1 1) and Ni(1 0 0)

The adsorption of CN on Cu(1 1 1), Ni(1 1 1) and Ni(1 0 0) has been investigated using density functional theory (DFT). While experimental studies of CN on Cu(1 1 1) show the molecular axis to be essentially parallel to the surface, the normally-preferred DFT approach using the generalised gradient approximation (GGA) yields a lowest energy configuration with the C-N axis perpendicular to the surface, although calculations using the local density approximation (LDA) do indicate that the experimental geometry is energetically favoured. The same conclusions are found for CN on Ni(1 1 1); on both surfaces bonding through the N atom is always unfavourable, in contrast to some earlier published results of ab initio calculations for Ni(1 1 1)/CN and Ni(1 0 0)/CN. The different predictions of the GGA and LDA approaches may lie in subtly different relative energies of the CN 5σ and 1π orbitals, a situation somewhat similar to that for CO adsorbed on Pt(1 1 1) which has proved challenging for DFT calculations. On Ni(1 0 0) GGA calculations favour a lying-down species in a hollow site in a geometry rather similar to that found experimentally and in GGA calculations for CN on Ni(1 1 0).     

Cyclic cluster study of water adsorption structures on the MgO(1 0 0) surface

Cyclic cluster calculations were performed with the quantum chemical method MSINDO to elucidate the relative stabilities of c(4 × 2), p(3 × 2) and (1 × 1) overlayer structures of water molecules on the MgO(1 0 0) surface. For the c(4 × 2) and p(3 × 2) structures both molecular adsorption and partially dissociated adsorption were considered. In agreement with earlier theoretical studies partial dissociation was found to be more stable than molecular adsorption. For the c(4 × 2) structure both monolayer and double layer coverage were studied. Adsorption was found to be more stabilized with increasing degree of dissociation until 50% of the water molecules were dissociated. In the case of 50% dissociated water molecules we found that one quarter of the Mg atoms were pulled out of the MgO surface when surface relaxation was taken into account. A new structure for the fully dissociated (1 × 1) water monolayer was found which is considerably more stable than previously studied arrangements. In all cases surface relaxation was found to be important. The most stable structures of c(4 × 2), p(3 × 2) and (1 × 1) symmetry have adsorption energies which differ by no more than 13 kJ/mol. This offers an explanation of phase transitions of overlayer structures found by experiments between 180 and 300 K.     

FS and FS(OH) defect centers at the MgO(1 0 0) surface: cluster and periodic calculations

We present a model of a new paramagnetic defect center which results from the interaction of atomic hydrogen with the MgO(1 0 0) surface. DFT calculations have been performed using periodic supercells and embedded cluster models where long-range polarization effects are included explicitly. The H atom promotes the creation of an oxygen vacancy (F center) by formation of the F_S⁺(OH⁻) defect where an hydroxyl group is adsorbed near an electron trapped in an oxygen vacancy. This new center has some characteristics similar to those of the classical F_S⁺ centers but a smaller formation energy; furthermore, being globally neutral, it can be treated also with supercell methods.     

First-principles studies of the oxygen adsorption on unreconstructed and reconstructed Ni(1 1 0) surfaces

First-principles calculations have been performed to investigate the adsorption of oxygen on unreconstructed and reconstructed Ni(1 1 0) surfaces. The energetics, structural, electronic and magnetic properties are given in detail. For oxygen adsorption on unreconstructed surface, (n×1)(n=2,3) substrate with oxygen atom on short-bridge site is found to be the most stable adsorption configuration. Whereas energetically most favorable adsorption phase of reconstructed surface is p(n×1) substrate with oxygen atom located at long-bridge site. Our calculations suggest that the surface reconstruction is induced by the oxygen adsorption. We also find there are redistributions of electronic structure and electron transfer from the substrate to adsorbate. Our calculations also indicate surface magnetic moment is enhanced on clean surfaces and oxygen atoms are magnetized weakly after oxygen adsorption. Interestingly, adsorption on unreconstructed surface does not change surface magnetic moment. However, adsorbate leads to reduction of surface magnetic moment in reconstructed system remarkably.     

Effects of metal-support interactions on the electronic structures of metal atoms adsorbed on the perfect and defective MgO(1 0 0) surfaces

The electronic structures of Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, and Zn atoms adsorbed on the perfect MgO(1 0 0) surface and on a surface oxygen vacancy have been studied at the DFT/B3LYP level of theory using both the bare cluster and embedded cluster models. Ni, Pd, Pt, and Cu atoms can form stable adsorption complexes on the regular O site of the perfect MgO(1 0 0) surface with the binding energies of 19.0, 25.2, 46.7, and 17.3 kcal/mol, respectively, despite very little electron transfer between the surface and the metal atoms. On the other hand, adsorptions of Ni, Pd, Pt, and Cu atoms show strong interaction with an oxygen vacancy on the MgO(1 0 0) surface by transferring a significant number of electron charges from the vacancy to the adsorbed metal atoms and thus forming ionic bonds with the vacancy site. These interactions on the vacancy site for Ni, Pd, Pt, and Cu atoms increase the binding energies by 25.8, 59.7, 85.2, and 19.1 kcal/mol, respectively, compared to those on the perfect surface. Zn atom interacts very weakly with the perfect surface as well as the surface oxygen vacancy. We observed that the interaction increases from Ni to Pt in the same group and decreases from Ni to Zn in the same transition metal period in both perfect and vacancy systems. These relationships correlate well with the degrees of electron transfer from the surface to the adsorbed metal atom. The changes in the ionization potentials of the surface also correlate with the adsorption energies or degrees of electron transfers. Madelung potential is found to have significant effects on the electronic properties of metal atom adsorptions on the MgO(1 0 0) surface as well as on an oxygen vacancy, though it is more so for the latter. Furthermore, the Madelung potential facilitates electron transfer from the surface to the adsorbed metal atoms but not in the other direction.     

Methods for calculating the desorption rate of an isolated molecule from a surface: Water on MgO(0 0 1)

We present two types of Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulation for calculating the desorption rate of molecules from a surface. In the first, the molecules move freely between two surfaces, and the desorption rate is obtained either by counting the number of desorption events in a given time, or by looking at the average density of the molecules as a function of distance from the surface and then applying transition state theory (TST). In the second, the potential of mean force (PMF) for a molecule is determined as a function of distance from the surface and the desorption rate is obtained by means of TST. The methods are applied to water on the MgO(0 0 1) surface at low coverage. Classical potentials are used so that long simulations can be performed, to minimise statistical errors. The two sets of MD simulations agree well at high temperatures. The PMF method reproduces the 0 K adsorption energy of the molecule to within 5 meV, and finds that the well depth of the PMF is not linear with temperature. This implies the prefactor frequency f in the Polanyi-Wigner equation is a function of temperature, increasing at lower temperatures due to the reduction of the available configuration space associated with an adsorbed molecule compared with a free molecule.     

Ethylene hydrogenation on Ni(1 0 0) surface

The hydrogenation of ethylene on Ni(1 0 0) surface has been studied by TDS. The decrease in the bonding energy with increasing coverage is revealed for both of adsorbed hydrogen and ethylene by the shift of desorption to lower temperatures. Ethane formation is only observed on the preadsorbed hydrogen coverage exceeding 0.5 monolayer (ML), coupled with the growth of H₂ shoulder peak at lower temperatures. Further increase of H coverage to saturation reduces the bonding energy of subsequently adsorbed ethylene by 15 kJ/mol and decreases the saturation coverage of ethylene to about one-third on the clean surface. This leads to the shift of ethane desorption from 250 to 220 K and an appearance of additional ethane peak at 180 K. The latter ethane formation coincides with the hydrogenation of surface ethyl species derived from ethyl iodide as a precursor. It indicates that the rate of ethyl formation on the surface would be comparable to that of subsequent hydrogen addition to the surface ethyl species in the hydrogenation of ethylene when the preadsorbed hydrogen coverage approaches 1.0 ML.     

SiO adsorption on a p(2 × 2) reconstructed Si(1 0 0) surface

We have investigated the adsorption mechanism of SiO molecule incident on a clean Si(1 0 0) p(2 × 2) reconstructed surface using density functional theory based methods. Stable adsorption geometries of SiO on Si surface, as well as their corresponding activation and adsorption energies are identified. We found that the SiO molecule is adsorbed on the Si(1 0 0) surface with almost no activation energy. An adsorption configuration where the SiO binds on the channel separating the dimer rows, forming a Si-O-Si bridge on the surface, is the energetically most favourable geometry found. A substantial red-shift in the calculated vibrational frequencies of the adsorbed SiO molecule in the bridging configurations is observed. Comparison of adsorption energies shows that SiO adsorption on a Si(1 0 0) surface is energetically less favourable than the comparable O₂ adsorption. However, the role of SiO in the growth of silicon sub-oxides during reactive magnetron plasma deposition is expected to be significant due to the relatively large amount of SiO molecules incident on the deposition surface and its considerable sticking probability. The stable adsorption geometries found here exhibit structural properties similar to the Si/SiO₂ interface and may be used for studying SiO_x growth.     

Ground-state properties of arsenic deposited on the Ge(0 0 1)(2 × 1) surface

We present results of ab initio calculations of structural, electronic and vibrational properties of the Ge(0 0 1) surface covered with a monolayer of arsenic. The fully occupied π_u bonding and π_g antibonding electronic states due to the As-As dimer formation are quite close in energy and their ordering is same as that found on the Si(0 0 1) surface. Using our calculated atomic and electronic structures, surface lattice dynamics was studied by employing a linear response approach based on density functional perturbation theory. A comparison of the phonon spectrum of the Ge(0 0 1)/As(2 × 1) surface with that of the clean Ge(0 0 1)(2 × 1) surface indicates the presence of several new characteristic phonon modes due to adsorption of As atoms.     

Theoretical studies on the adsorption and decomposition of H2O on Pd(1 1 1) surface

To provide information about the chemistry of water on Pd surfaces, we performed density functional slab model studies on water adsorption and decomposition at Pd(1 1 1) surface. We located transition states of a series of elementary steps and calculated activation energies and rate constants with and without quantum tunneling effect included. Water was found to weakly bind to the Pd surface. Co-adsorbed species OH and O that are derivable from H₂O stabilize the adsorbed water molecules via formation of hydrogen bonds. On the clean surface, the favorable sites are top and bridge for H₂O and OH, respectively. Calculated kinetic parameters indicate that dehydrogenation of water is unlikely on the clean regular Pd(1 1 1) surface. The barrier for the hydrogen abstraction of H₂O at the OH covered surface is approximately 0.2-0.3 eV higher than the value at the clean surface. Similar trend is computed for the hydroxyl group dissociation at H₂O or O covered surfaces. In contrast, the O-H bond breaking of water on oxygen covered Pd surfaces, H₂O_ad + O_ad → 2OH_ad, is predicted to be likely with a barrier of ∼0.3 eV. The reverse reaction, 2OH_ad → H₂O_ad + O_ad, is also found to be very feasible with a barrier of ∼0.1 eV. These results show that on oxygen-covered surfaces production of hydroxyl species is highly likely, supporting previous experimental findings.     

CO2 dissociation on Ni(2 1 1)

The direct and H-mediated dissociation of CO₂ on Ni(2 1 1) were investigated at the level of density functional theory. Although formate (HCOO) formation via CO₂ hydrogenation was widely reported for CO₂ adsorption on metal surfaces, it is found that on Ni(2 1 1) HCOO dissociation into CHO and O is much difficult, while direct dissociation of adsorbed CO₂ into CO and O is more favorable. It is also found that the degree of electron transfer from surface to adsorbed CO₂ correlates with the elongation of C-O bond lengths and the reduction of the CO₂ dissociation barrier.     

Effect of hydrogenation on B/Si(0 0 1)-(1 × 2)

Ab initio calculations, based on pseudopotentials and density functional theory, have been performed to investigate the effect of hydrogenation on the atomic geometries and the energetics of substitutional boron on the generic Si(0 0 1)-(1 × 2) surface. For a single B atom substitution corresponding to 0.5 ML coverage, we have considered two different sites: (i) the mixed Si-B dimer structure and (ii) boron substituting for the second-layer Si to form Si-B back-bond structure, which is energetically more favorable than the mixed Si-B dimer by 0.1 eV/dimer. However, when both of these cases are passivated by hydrogen atoms, the situation is reversed and the Si-B back-bond case becomes 0.1 eV/dimer higher in energy than the mixed Si-B dimer case. For the B incorporation corresponding to 1 ML coverage, among the substitutional cases, 100% interdiffusion into the third layer of Si and 50% interdiffusion into the second layer of Si are energetically similar and more favorable than the other cases that are considered. However, when the surface is passivated with hydrogen, the B atoms energetically prefer to stay at the third layer of the Si substrate.