Adsorption of platinum on the stoichiometric RuO2(110) surface

Density functional theory was used to calculate the geometries and electronic structures of Pt adsorption on the stoichiometric RuO(2)(110) surface at different coverages. The calculated results revealed that the Pt atoms strongly adsorb on RuO(2), and two-dimensional growth up to 1.25 ML deposition is energetically favorable. At low coverage, the binding between Pt and RuO(2) is very strong, accompanied by a significant transfer of electron density from Pt to the support and a large downshift of the d-band compared to that of the unsupported Pt. At high coverage, a weak interaction of RuO(2) with the Pt cluster is observed, and the electronic structure of Pt is only slightly modified with respect to that of the unsupported material. Our results suggest that among the systems investigated, the RuO(2)-supported Pt at a coverage of 1 ML may become one of the best alternatives to pure Pt as a catalyst because it combines a high stability and a moderate activity similar to Pt.     

Catalytic oxidation of ammonia on RuO2(110) surfaces: mechanism and selectivity

The selective oxidation of ammonia to either N2 or NO on RuO2(110) single-crystal surfaces was investigated by a combination of vibrational spectroscopy (HREELS), thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and steady-state rate measurements under continuous flow conditions. The stoichiometric RuO2(110) surface exposes coordinatively unsaturated (cus) Ru atoms onto which adsorption of NH3 (NH3-cus) or dissociative adsorption of oxygen (O-cus) may occur. In the absence of O-cus, ammonia desorbs completely thermally without any reaction. However, interaction between NH3-cus and O-cus starts already at 90 K by hydrogen abstraction and hydrogenation to OH-cus, leading eventually to N-cus and H2O. The N-cus species recombine either with each other to N2 or with neighboring O-cus leading to strongly held NO-cus which desorbs around 500 K. The latter reaction is favored by higher concentrations of O-cus. Under steady-state flow condition with constant NH3 partial pressure and varying O2 pressure, the rate for N2 formation takes off first, passes through a maximum and then decreases again, whereas that for NO production exhibits an S-shape and rises continuously. In this way at 530 K almost 100% selectivity for NO formation (with fairly high reaction probability for NH3) is reached.     

Theoretical investigation on RuO2 nanoclusters adsorbed on TiO2 rutile (110) and anatase (101) surfaces

Minimizing the energy of an $N$ -electron system as a functional of a two-electron reduced density matrix (2-RDM), constrained by necessary $N$ -representability conditions (conditions for the 2-RDM to represent an ensemble $N$ -electron quantum system), yields a rigorous lower bound to the ground-state energy in contrast to variational wave function methods. We characterize the performance of two sets of approximate constraints, (2,2)-positivity (DQG) and approximate (2,3)-positivity (DQGT) conditions, at capturing correlation in one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional (ladder) Hubbard models. We find that, while both the DQG and DQGT conditions capture both the weak and strong correlation limits, the more stringent DQGT conditions improve the ground-state energies, the natural occupation numbers, the pair correlation function, the effective hopping, and the connected (cumulant) part of the 2-RDM. We observe that the DQGT conditions are effective at capturing strong electron correlation effects in both one- and quasi-one-dimensional lattices for both half filling and less-than-half filling.     

Interaction of hydrogen with RuO2(110) surfaces: activity differences between various oxygen species

The interaction of hydrogen with RuO(2)(110) surfaces was studied by means of thermal desorption and vibration spectroscopies. The stoichiometric surface exposes two types of coordinatively unsaturated atoms: double-bonded O-bridge and five-fold-bonded Ru-cus, while at the O-rich surface the Ru-cus atoms are covered with single-bonded O-cus. On the stoichiometric RuO(2)(110) surface at 90 K, H(2) either adsorbs molecularly on Ru-cus sites or dissociates and forms with O-bridge an H(2)O-like surface group. If, in addition, also O-cus is present at the surface, hydrogen interacts exclusively with this species forming H(2)O-cus. This demonstrates that hydrogen reacts much more readily with O-cus than with O-bridge as expected from the reduced bond order and smaller binding energy of O-cus. It is furthermore shown that at surface temperatures below 90 K free coordinatively unsaturated Ru-cus sites are needed to activate the incoming H(2) molecules prior to any reaction with O-cus or O-bridge. Generally, Ru-cus sites play a key role for reactions of a number of molecules at the RuO(2)(110) surface. These findings are supported by recent DFT-based calculations but are at variance with other reports.     

Single crystal RuO2 (110): Surface structure

The surface structure of RuO₂ (110) has been studied with LEED, AES and XPS. The “as-grown” surface shows no LEED patterns and both AES and XPS indicate that the surface is depleted in oxygen in high vacuum. After extensive annealing in an O₂ atmosphere reproducible LEED patterns characteristic of the (110) surface were obtained. For the well-ordered surface the oxygen XPS results revealed oxygen associated with the bulk RuO₂, the presence of RuO₃ and oxygen bound to surface atoms.     

Theoretical study of CO and H2O interaction on (110) and (101) Zirconia surfaces

Theoretical calculations of CO and H₂O adsorption on (110) and (101) tetragonal Zirconia surfaces were carried out using ONIOM2 methodology. The calculations showed that the adsorption processes are exothermic reactions with energy values of −28.4 kcal/mol for H₂O on the (110) surface, −51.0 kcal/mol for H₂O on the (101) surface, −21.7 kcal/mol for CO on (110) surface and −23.4 kcal/mol for CO on (101) surface. Analysis of the results suggest that different kinds of basic sites can be found on the (110) and (101) surfaces. In both (110) and (101) surfaces, CO adsorption is on bridged (bonded to two Zr atoms on the (110) surface, bonded to one Zr and O atoms on the (101) surface). The calculations showed that ONIOM can be a powerful tool to study structural and thermodynamics properties of solid surfaces.     

The interaction of hydrogen and carbon monoxide on Cu-Ni (110) single-crystal surfaces

The co-adsorption of H₂ and CO on a Cu-Ni (110) surface was studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) and ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS). Strong interactions between adsorbed CO and hydrogen observed in the CO desorption spectrum and CO valence emissions were attributed to a blockage of certain CO adsorption sites by hydrogen.     

Inhibition of CO oxidation on RuO2(110) by adsorbed H2O molecules

Catalytic CO oxidation on the RuO(2)(110) surface was studied at 300 K by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), high-resolution electron-energy-loss spectroscopy (HREELS), and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Upon repeatedly exposing the surface to several 10 L of CO and O(2) at 300 K, STM shows that unreactive features accumulate with each CO and O(2) titration run. HREELS and TDS show formation of increasing amounts of H(2)O, retarded formation of O-cus atoms and incomplete removal of CO-bridge molecules during O(2) dosing, and a changing ratio of single- and double-bonded CO-bridge molecules. It is concluded that H(2)O (presumably from the residual gas) is accumulating at the Ru-cus sites thus blocking them, so that the dissociative adsorption of oxygen is prevented and the CO oxidation reaction is suppressed. Some 10% CO- bridge remains on the surface even during oxygen exposure. Consistent with this interpretation, deactivation of the surface is suppressed at 350 K, at the onset of H(2)O desorption.     

HCOO在Cu(110)、Ag(110)和Au(110)表面的吸附

采用密度泛函理论(DFT)以及广义梯度近似方法(GGA)计算了甲酸根(HCOO)在Cu(110)、Ag(110)和Au(110)表面的吸附. 计算结果表明, 短桥位是最稳定的吸附位置, 计算的几何参数与以前的实验和计算结果吻合. 吸附热顺序为Cu(110)(-116 kJ·mol-1)>Ag(110)(-57 kJ·mol-1)>Au(110)(-27 kJ·mol-1), 与实验上甲酸根的分解温度相一致. 电子态密度分析表明, 吸附热顺序可以用吸附分子与金属d-带之间的Pauli 排斥来关联, 即排斥作用越大, 吸附越弱. 另外还从计算的吸附热数据以及实验上HCOO的分解温度估算了反应CO2+1/2H2→HCOO的活化能, 其大小顺序为Au(110)>Ag(110)>Cu(110).     

Mechanism and Tafel lines of electro-oxidation of water to oxygen on RuO2(110)

How to efficiently oxidize H(2)O to O(2) (H(2)O → 1/2O(2) + 2H(+) + 2e(-)) is a great challenge for electrochemical/photo water splitting owing to the high overpotential and catalyst corrosion. Here extensive periodic first-principles calculations integrated with modified-Poisson-Boltzmann electrostatics are utilized to reveal the physical origin of the high overpotential of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on RuO(2)(110). By determining the surface phase diagram, exploring the possible reaction channels, and computing the Tafel lines, we are able to elucidate some long-standing puzzles on the OER kinetics from the atomic level. We show that OER occurs directly on an O-terminated surface phase above 1.58 V vs NHE, but indirectly on a OH/O mixed phase below 1.58 V by converting first the OH/O mixed phase to the O-terminated phase locally. The rate-determining step of OER involves an unusual water oxidation reaction following a Eley-Rideal-like mechanism, where a water molecule from solution breaks its OH bond over surface Os with concurrent new O-OH bond formation. The free energy barrier is 0.74 eV at 1.58 V, and it decreases linearly with the increase of potential above 1.58 V (a slope of 0.56). In contrast, the traditionally regarded surface oxygen coupling reaction with a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism is energetically less favored and its barrier is weakly affected by the potential. Fundamentally, we show that the empirical linear barrier~potential relation is caused by the linear structural response of the solvated transition state to the change of potential. Finally, the general strategy for finding better OER anode is also presented.     

Adsorption configurations and energetics of BClx (x=0-3) on TiO2 anatase (101) and rutile (110) surfaces

This study investigates the adsorption and reactions of boron trichloride and its fragments (BClx) on the TiO2 anatase (101) and rutile (110) surfaces by first-principles calculations. The results show that the possible absorbates on the TiO2 anatase and rutile surfaces are very similar. The single- and double-site adsorption configurations are found for both anatase and rutile surfaces. The particular adsorbate feature on the anatase surface is its in-plane double-site adsorption by Ti and O from its sawtooth surface. The potential energy surface shows that BCl3 can be adsorbed on the O site for both the anantase and rutile surfaces and the most of the BClx reaction on both anatase and rutile surfaces are endothermic, except for the dissociative reaction on the rutile surface. The energy levels of the BClx reactions between the anatase and rutile surfaces show that the rutile surface has lower energy levels than those of anatase surface. This result reveals that the BClx dissociative adsorption more easily occurs on rutile surface than on anatase surface.     

Adsorption on well-defined solid surfaces: Bromide adsorption on a (110) face of silver

The adsorption of bromide has been studied on a (110) face of silver by means of mixed solutions with hexafluorophosphate as base electrolyte. From the differential capacity-potential curves, the adsorbed charge of bromide was determined as functions of the electrode charge and the potential. The components of the inner-layer capacity have been determined for the two peaks always observed on the (110) face in the presence of specific adsorption. For the more negative peak potential, the component at constant amount adsorbed confirms the essential contribution of the orientation of water dipoles to the existence of this peak. On the other hand, the component at constant electrode charge indicates a non0linear electrode charge dependence of the standard Gibbs energy of adsorption. For the less negative peak potential, the two components of the inner-layer capacity seem to show that the bromide adsorption is mainly responsible for the appearance of the second peak.Different structures of the layer of adsorbed ions are proposed for different coverages of the surface. A pseudohexagonal structure, equivalent to the c (4×2) structure, corresponds to the adsorbed charge determined at saturation.     

Adsorption geometry, molecular interaction, and charge transfer of triphenylamine-based dye on rutile TiO2(110)

The fast development of new organic sensitizers leads to the need for a better understanding of the complexity and significance of their adsorption processes on TiO(2) surfaces. We have investigated a prototype of the triphenylamine-cyanoacrylic acid (donor-acceptor) on rutile TiO(2) (110) surface with special attention on the monolayer region. This molecule belongs to the type of dye, some of which so far has delivered the record efficiency of 10%-10.3% for pure organic sensitizers [W. Zeng, Y. Cao, Y. Bai, Y. Wang, Y. Shi, M. Zhang, F. Wang, C. Pan, and P. Wang, Chem. Mater. 22, 1915 (2010)]. The molecular configuration of this dye on the TiO(2) surface was found to vary with coverage and adopt gradually an upright geometry, as determined from near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Due to the molecular interaction within the increasingly dense packed layer, the molecular electronic structure changes systematically: all energy levels shift to higher binding energies, as shown by photoelectron spectroscopy. Furthermore, the investigation of charge delocalization within the molecule was carried out by means of resonant photoelectron spectroscopy. A fast delocalization (～1.8 fs) occurs at the donor part while a competing process between delocalization and localization takes place at the acceptor part. This depicts the "push-pull" concept in donor-acceptor molecular system in time scale.     

Adsorption and dissociation of NH3 on clean and hydroxylated TiO2 rutile (110) surfaces: a computational study

The adsorption and dissociation of NH(3) on the clean and hydroxylated TiO(2) rutile (110) surfaces have been investigated by the first-principles calculations. The monodentate adsorbates such as H(3)N-Ti(a), H(2)N-Ti(a), N-Ti(a), H(2)N-O(a), HN-O(a), N-O(a) and H-O(a), as well as the bidentate adsorbate, Ti-N-Ti(a) can be formed on the clean surface. It is found that the hydroxyl group enhances the adsorption of certain adsorbates on the five-fold-coordinated Ti atoms (5c-Ti), namely H(2)N-Ti(a), HN-Ti(a), N-Ti(a) and Ti-N-Ti(a). In addition, the adsorption energy increases as the number of hydroxyl groups increases. On the contrary, the opposite effect is found for those on the two-fold-coordinated O atoms (2c-O). The enhanced adsorption of NH(x) (x = 1-2) on the 5c-Ti is due to the large electronegativity of the OH group, increasing the acidity of the Ti center. This also contributes to diminish the adsorption of NH(x) (x = 1-2) on the two-fold-coordinated O atoms (2c-O) decreasing its basicity. According to potential energy profile, the NH(3) dissociation on the TiO(2) surface is endothermic and the hydroxyl group is found to lower the energetics of H(2)N-Ti(a)+H-O(a) and HN-Ti(a)+2{H-O(a)}, but slightly raise the energetic of Ti-N-Ti(a)+3{H-O(a)} compare to those on the clean surface. However, the dissociation of NH(3) is found to occur on the hydroxylated surface with an overall endothermic by 31.8 kcal/mol and requires a barrier of 37.5 kcal/mol. A comparison of NH(3) on anatase surface has been discussed. The detailed electronic analysis is also carried out to gain insights into the interaction nature between adsorbate and surface.     

Adsorption of carbon monoxide on Pd low‐index surfaces and (110) reconstructed surface

Adsorption and diffusion of carbon monoxide on Pd low‐index surfaces and missing‐row Pd (110) reconstructed surface have been investigated by the extended London–Eyring–Polyani–Sato (LEPS) method constructed by means of a five‐parameter Morse potential. All critical characteristics, such as adsorption site, adsorption geometry, binding energy, CO vibrational frequency have been obtained and compared with the experimental and theoretical data. On these surfaces, the stable adsorption sites of CO are changed with increasing CO coverage. On the missing‐row Pd (110) reconstructed surface, there are five stable adsorption sites: H₁, H₂ (H₁ and H₂ are threefold hollow sites on (111) subsurface), B (bridge site on the second layer), SB (short‐bridge site), and T (top site). Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic response of chlorine atoms on a RuO(2)(110) model catalyst surface

The dynamic behavior of surface accommodated chlorine atoms on RuO(2)(110) was studied by a variety of experimental methods including high resolution core level shift, thermal desorption-, and in situ infrared spectroscopy as well as in situ surface X-ray diffraction in combination with state-of-the-art density functional theory calculations. On the chlorinated RuO(2)(110) surface the undercoordinated oxygen atoms have been selectively replaced by chlorine. These strongly bound surface chlorine atoms shift from bridging to on-top sites when the sample is annealed in oxygen, while the reverse shift of Cl from on-top into bridge positions is observed during CO exposure; the vacant bridge position is then occupied by either chlorine or CO. For the CO oxidation reaction over chlorinated RuO(2)(110), the reactant induced site switching of chlorine causes a site-blocking of the catalytically active one-fold coordinatively unsaturated (1f-cus) Ru sites. This site blocking reduces the number of active sites and, even more important, on-top Cl blocks the free migration of the adsorbed reactants along the one-dimensional 1f-cus Ru rows, thus leading to a loss of catalytic activity.