DFT study of NH3 dissociation on Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7. The role of intermolecular interactions

The adsorption of NH₃ molecule on the Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 surface modelled with a cluster has been studied using density functional theory (DFT). The results indicate the existence of a precursor state for the non-dissociative chemisorption. The active site for the molecular chemisorption is the adatom; while the NH₃ molecule adsorbs on the Si restatom via this preadsorbed state, the adsorption on the Si adatom is produced practically without an energy barrier. The ammonia adsorption on the adatom induces an electron transfer from the dangling bond of this atom to the dangling bond of the adjacent Si restatom, hindering this site for the adsorption of a second NH₃ incoming molecule. However, this second molecule links strongly by means of two H-bonds. The dissociative chemisorption process was studied considering one and two ammonia molecules. For the dissociation of a lonely NH₃ molecule an energy barrier of ∼0.3 eV was calculated, yielding NH₂ on the adatom and H on the restatom. When two molecules are adsorbed, the NH₃-NH₃ interaction yields the weakening of a N-H bond of the ammonia molecule adsorbed closer the Si surface. As a consequence, the dissociation barrier practically disappears. Thus, the presence of a second NH₃ molecule at the adatom-restatom pair of the Si(1 1 1)-7 × 7 surface makes the dissociative reaction self-assisted, the total adsorption process elapsing with a negligible activation barrier (less than 0.01 eV).     

First-principles study on the catalytic role of Ag in the oxygen adsorption of LaMnO3(0 0 1) surface

In the present paper, the catalytic role of Ag in the oxygen adsorption of LaMnO₃(0 0 1) surface has been theoretically investigated using first-principles calculations based on the density functional theory (DFT) and pseudopotential method. The O₂ adsorption energy is larger for the vertical adsorption and the covalent bond was formed between O₂ molecule and surface Mn. The calculation of electronic properties of interaction between Ag atom and LaMnO₃(0 0 1) surface demonstrates that the most stable position for Ag adsorption is hollow site. The O₂ adsorption energy dramatically increased from 0.298 eV to 1.108 eV due to Ag pre-adsorbed. It is Ag pre-adsorbed that facilitates O₂ adsorption on surface. The bond length and bond population of O₂ molecule indicate that Ag atom facilitates O₂ molecule dissociative adsorption. The Ag atom strengthens LaMnO₃(0 0 1) substrate activity and activity center was formed on surface, which enhances the electrocatalytic activity of LaMnO₃ as solid oxide fuel cells cathode material at low temperature.     

The adsorption and dissociation of O2 molecular precursors on Cu: the effect of steps

The adsorption and dissociation of dioxygen on Cu steps are studied using periodic self-consistent density functional theory (PW91-GGA) calculations. Cu steps are modeled with a Cu(2 1 1) surface. The results are compared with those on the flat Cu(1 1 1) surface. The adsorption of both atomic and molecular oxygen is enhanced on the stepped surface: the binding energy of atomic oxygen is −4.5 eV at its preferred site on the relaxed Cu(2 1 1) surface vs. −4.3 eV at its preferred site on the relaxed Cu(1 1 1) surface, and the binding energy of the molecular oxygen precursor is increased from ∼−0.6 to ∼−1.0 eV. Several possible O₂ dissociation paths at the edge of the Cu(2 1 1) step have been investigated. The activation energies range from 0.09 to 0.24 eV, comparable to a minimum activation energy of 0.20 eV found on Cu(1 1 1). However, compared to Cu(1 1 1) the paths on Cu(2 1 1) are stabilized in their entirety by the step by ∼0.5 eV in terms of initial state, transition state, and final state energies. The dissociation of O₂ precursors at the foot of the step is close to being barrier-less. Because of the small dissociation barrier on Cu(1 1 1), the effect of steps on O₂ dissociation is nevertheless not expected to be as pronounced as in other gas/metal systems.     

Dissociations of O2 molecules on ultrathin Pb(111) films: first-principles plane wave calculations

Using first-principles calculations, we systematically study the dissociations of O₂ molecules on different ultrathin Pb(111) films. According to our previous work revealing the molecular adsorption precursor states for O₂, we further explore why there are two nearly degenerate adsorption states on Pb(111) ultrathin films, but no precursor adsorption states existing at all on Mg(0001) and Al(111) surfaces. The reason is concluded to be the different surface electronic structures. For the O₂ dissociation, we consider both the reaction channels from gas-like and molecularly adsorbed O₂ molecules. We find that the energy barrier for O₂ dissociation from the molecular adsorption precursor states is always smaller than that from O₂ gas. The most energetically favorable dissociation process is found to be the same on different Pb(111) films, and the energy barriers are found to be influenced by the quantum size effects of Pb(111) films.     

H2在Al7-团簇解离吸附的理论研究

利用高精度从头计算方法研究了H₂分子在Al₇^-阴离子团簇上的吸附及解离过程, 确定了分子吸附及解离吸附的稳定结构,并分析了各结构的光电子能谱. 计算表明H₂在Al₇^-上为弱的物理吸附,吸附能约为0.02 eV;解离过程的能垒约为0.75 eV. 对团簇及解离吸附结构的态密度与实验得到的光电子能谱的比较表明二者能够很好地符合, 确定H₂与激光烧蚀产生的团簇直接反应时能在Al₇^-上发生解离. 关键词： 7^-')" href="#">Al₇^- 2')" href="#">H₂ 解离吸附 从头计算     

H2 分子在Li3N(110)表面吸附的第一性原理研究

采用第一性原理方法研究了H₂分子在Li₃N(110)晶面的表面吸附. 通过研究H₂/Li₃N(110)体系的吸附位置、吸附能和电子结构发现: H₂分子吸附在N桥位要比吸附在其他位置稳定,此时在Li₃N(110)面形成两个-NH基,其吸附能为1.909 eV,属于强化学吸附;H₂与Li₃N(110)面的相互作用主要是H 1s轨道与N 关键词： 第一性原理 3N(110)')" href="#">Li₃N(110) 2')" href="#">H₂ 吸附和解离     

Interaction of H2O with a clean and oxygen precovered Ni(110) surface studied by XPS

The adsorption and reaction of H₂O on clean and oxygen precovered Ni(110) surfaces was studied by XPS from 100 to 520 K. At low temperature (T<150 K), a multilayer adsorption of H₂O on the clean surface with nearly constant sticking coefficient was observed. The O 1s binding energy shifted with coverage from 533.5 to 534.4 eV. H₂O adsorption on an oxygen precovered Ni(110) surface in the temperature range from 150 to 300 K leads to an O 1s double peak with maxima at 531.0 and 532.6 eV for T=150 K (530.8 and 532.8 eV at 300 K), proposed to be due to hydrogen bonded O_ads… HOH species on the surface. For T>350 K, only one sharp peak at 530.0 eV binding energy was detected, due to a dissociation of H₂O into O_ads and H₂. The s-shaped O 1s intensity-exposure curves are discussed on the basis of an autocatalytic process with a temperature dependent precursor state.     

A density functional theory study on the adsorption of CO and O2 on Cu-terminated Cu2O （111） surface

The adsorptions of CO and 02 molecules individually on the stoichiometric Cu-terminatcd Cu20 （111） surface are investigated by first-principles calculations on the basis of the density functional theory. The calculated results indicate that the CO molecule preferably coordinates to the Cu2 site through its C atom with an adsorption energy of-1.69 eV, whereas the 02 molecule is most stably adsorbed in a tilt type with one O atom coordinating to the Cu2 site and the other O atom coordinating to the Cul site, and has an adsorption energy of -1.97 eV. From the analysis of density of states, it is observed that Cu 3d transfers electrons to 2π orbital of the CO molecule and the highest occupied 5σ orbital of the CO molecule transfers electrons to the substrate. The sharp band of Cu 4s is delocalized when compared to that before the CO molecule adsorption, and overlaps substantially with bands of the adsorbed CO molecule. There is a broadening of the 2π orbital of the 02 molecule because of its overlapping with the Cu 3d orbital, indicating that strong 3d-2π interactions are involved in the chemisorption of the 02 molecule on the surface.     

H2O2 adsorption on the BN and SiC nanotubes: A DFT study

We have performed a comparative density functional theory study on adsorption of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) on the boron nitride and silicon carbide nanotubes (BNNT and SiCNT) in terms of energetic, geometric, and electronic properties. It has been found that the molecule is chemically adsorbed on both of the tubes so that its interaction with SiCNT (adsorption energy ∼−0.97 eV) is much stronger than that with BNNT (adsorption energy ∼−0.47 eV). The H₂O₂ adsorption on BNNT slightly decreases its work function, increasing the field electron emission from the BNNT surface while it may not affect that of the SiCNT. In addition, the adsorption process may increase the electrical conductivity of SiCNT while does not affect that of the BNNT, significantly. We believe that the SiCNT may be a potential candidate for detection of H₂O₂.     

Cluster size dependence of SiO2 thin film formation by O2 gas cluster ion beams

Cluster size effects of SiO₂ thin film formation with size-selected O₂ gas cluster ion beams (GCIBs) irradiation on Si surface were studied. The cluster size varied between 500 and 20,000 molecules/cluster. With acceleration voltage of 5 kV, the SiO₂ thickness was close to the native oxide thickness by irradiation of (O₂)_20,000 (0.25 eV/molecule), or (O₂)_10,000 (0.5 eV/molecule). However, it increased suddenly above 1 eV/molecule (5000 molecules/cluster), and increased monotonically up to 10 eV/molecule (500 molecules/cluster). The SiO₂ thickness with 1 and 10 eV/molecule O₂-GCIB were 2.1 and 5.0 nm, respectively. When the acceleration voltage was 30 kV, the SiO₂ thickness has a peak around 10 eV/molecule (3000 molecules/cluster), and it decreased gradually with increasing the energy/molecule. At high energy/molecule, physical sputtering effect became more dominant process than oxide formation. These results suggest that SiO₂ thin film formation can be controlled by energy per molecule.     

Reaction mechanism for CO oxidation on Cu(3 1 1): A density functional theory study

The microscopic reaction mechanism for CO oxidation on Cu(3 1 1) surface has been investigated by means of comprehensive density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The elementary steps studied include O₂ adsorption and dissociation, dissociated O atom adsorption and diffusion, as well as CO adsorption and oxidation on the metal. Our results reveal that O₂ is considerably reactive on the Cu(3 1 1) surface and will spontaneously dissociate at several adsorption states, which process are highly dependent on the orientation and site of the adsorbed oxygen molecule. The dissociated O atom may likely diffuse via inner terrace sites or from a terrace site to a step site due to the low barriers. Furthermore, we find that the energetically most favorable site for CO molecule on Cu(3 1 1) is the step edge site. According to our calculations, the reaction barrier of CO + O → CO₂ is about 0.3 eV lower in energy than that of CO + O₂ → CO₂ + O, suggesting the former mechanism play a main role in CO oxidation on the Cu(3 1 1) surface.     

First principles study of oxygen adsorption on nickel-doped graphite

Density functional theory is used in a spin-polarized plane wave pseudopotential implementation to investigate molecular oxygen adsorption and dissociation on graphite and nickel-doped graphite surfaces. Molecular oxygen physisorbs on graphite surface retaining its magnetic property. The calculated adsorption energy is consistent with the experimental value of ?0.1?eV. It is found that substituting a carbon atom of the graphite surface by a single doping nickel atom (2.8% content) makes the surface active for oxygen chemisorption. It is found that the molecular oxygen never adsorbs on doping nickel atom while it adsorbs and dissociates spontaneously into atomic oxygens on the carbon atoms which are bound to the nickel. The adsorption energy of ?1.4?eV and zero activation energy barrier indicate that O₂ dissociative adsorption is both thermodynamically and kinetically favoured over the surface. The large electric field near the doping nickel atom along with the excess electrons on the neighbouring carbon atoms, which are bound to the nickel induce molecular oxygen to adsorb and dissociate favourably.     

Oxidation of TiNi surface with hyperthermal oxygen molecular beams

We report results of our detailed studies on the initial oxidation process of TiNi with a 2 eV hyperthermal oxygen molecular beam (HOMB) and thermal O₂ in the backfilling. The oxidation processes are monitored by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements in conjunction with synchrotron radiation (SR). In the early stage of oxidation, the precursor mediated dissociative adsorption is the dominant reaction mechanism. In the oxide formation process at higher O coverage, HOMB has the advantage in the dissociation process of O₂ molecule and can grow TiO₂ layers with the underlying TiO_x-rich and/or Ni-rich layers. We succeeded in fabricating thick Ni-free TiO₂ layer, possibly blue colored rutile TiO₂, combining HOMB and surface annealing.     

DFT study of BaTiO<Subscript>3</Subscript> (001) surface with O and O<Subscript>2</Subscript> adsorption

Progress of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) allowed to handle various molecules adsorbed on a given surface. New concepts emerged with molecules on surfaces considered as nano machines by themselves. In this context, a thorough knowledge of surfaces and adsorbed molecules at an atomic scale is thus particularly invaluable. In this work, within the framework of density functional theory (DFT), we present an electronic and structural ab initio study of a BaTiO₃ (001) surface (perovskite structure) in its paraelectric phase. As far as we know the atomic and molecular adsorption of oxygen at surface is then analyzed for the first time in the literature. Relaxation is taken into account for several layers. Its analysis for a depth of at least four layers enables us to conclude that a reasonable approximation for a BaTiO₃ (001) surface is provided with a slab made up of nine plans. The relative stability of two possible terminations is considered. By using a kinetic energy cut off of 400 eV, we found that a surface with BaO termination is more stable than with TiO₂ termination. Consequently, a surface with BaO termination was chosen to adsorb either O atom or O₂ molecule and the corresponding calculations were performed with a coverage 1 on a (1×1) cell. A series of cases with O₂ molecule adsorbed in various geometrical configurations are also analyzed. For O₂, the most favorable adsorption is obtained when the molecule is placed horizontally, with its axis, directed along the Ba-Ba axis and with its centre of gravity located above a Ba atom. The corresponding value of the adsorption energy is -9.70 eV per molecule (-4.85 eV per O atom). The molecule is then rather extended since the O–O distance measures 1.829 ?. By comparison, the adsorption energy of an O atom directly located above a Ba atom is only -3.50 eV. Therefore we are allowed to conclude that the O–O interaction stabilizes atomic adsorption. Also the local densities of states (LDOS) corresponding to various situations are discussed in the present paper. Up to now, we are not aware of experimental data to be compared to our calculated results.     

Effect of van der Waals interactions on H<Subscript>2</Subscript> dissociation on clean and defected Ru(0001) surface

Ab initio computational methods are used to study the relevance of van der Waals interactions in the case of a hydrogen molecule adsorption on the Ru(0001) surface. In addition to the clean surface, the effects of ruthenium adatom and vacancy on the process are studied. The adsorption characteristics are analyzed in terms of two dimensional cuts of the potential energy surface (PES). Based on the earlier studies for such systems, we mostly concentrate on the trajectories where the hydrogen molecule approaches the surface in parallel orientation. The results indicate that for a clean Ru(0001) the calculations applying the non-local van der Waals potentials yield higher barriers for the dissociation of the H₂ molecule. Of the high symmetry sites on Ru(0001), the top site is found to be the most reactive one. The vacancy and ruthenium adatom sites exhibit high dissociation barriers compared with the clean surface.     

Sims studies of the adsorption of O2, CO and CO2 on titanium using low primary energies

The influence of the adsorption of O₂, CO and CO₂ on secondary ion yields from titanium has been examined using 500 eV primary argon ions. Secondary ion energy distributions were also measured. Electron-induced desorption was used as an auxiliary technique. For oxygen adsorption there is agreement with measurements using other techniques and the adsorption process is shown to occur in two stages, an initial rapid chemisorption regime followed by an oxide regime. For carbon monoxide adsorption, the measurements suggest that dissociation does not occur significantly at room temperature. For CO₂, the results are more complex. Complete dissociation seems unlikely but there may be partial dissociation. Some tentative generalizations are made concenrning the influence of adsorption on secondary ion yields.     

Theoretical analysis of oxygen reduction reaction and H2O2 formation and the impact of CF3SO3H coverage on Pt (111)

Theoretical analysis of ORR on Pt (111) was carried out with the combined technique of DFT calculation and the UBI-QEP method in order to understand the overall ORR pathways, behavior of H₂O₂ formation, and the impact of trifluoromethane sulfonic acid (CF₃SO₃H and TfOH) coverage, the alternative material of Nafion^®, on the reactivity on the Pt surface. The ORR scheme consisting of elementary reactions was then modeled to determine the dominant path and the limiting step based on their activation energies. The results showed that the dominant ORR path included the H₂O₂ formation step and OOH formation step was limiting. When TfOH covered the Pt surface, it was revealed that the adsorption energy of an O₂ molecule on Pt (111) was decreased due to the lower Fermi level and the d-band center, resulting in decreasing the activation energy of the limiting step. TfOH, however, could suppress the O₂ adsorption on the Pt surface. In addition, with the TfOH coverage, it was indicated that the limiting step of ORR was shifted to H₂O-production step which was after the H₂O₂ production, resulting in the enhancement of the H₂O₂ formation.     

Adsorption and diffusion of an Au atom and dimer on a θ-Al2O3 (001) surface

With density-functional calculations we have investigated adsorption and diffusion of an Au atom and an Au₂ dimer on a θ-Al₂O₃(001) surface. The surface structure of θ-Al₂O₃(001) has an armchair-like configuration containing flat and trench areas and the Au_n (n = 1 or 2) cluster prefers to adsorb on the flat area. A single Au atom adsorbs on an O–Al bridge site with adsorption energy 0.35 eV, whereas an Au₂ dimer bonds to the oxide with adsorption energy 0.78 eV, with one Au coordinated singly to a surface O. Formation of Au₂ from Au₁ is favored, with a negligible energy barrier. The calculated energy barriers for diffusion indicate that an Au atom diffuses more rapidly than an Au₂ dimer but both prefer to diffuse anisotropically, along the flat area of the θ-Al₂O₃(001) surface.     

Adsorption and dissociation of O2 on CuCl(1 1 1) surface: A density functional theory study

The adsorption and dissociation of O₂ on CuCl(1 1 1) surface have been systematically studied by the density functional theory (DFT) slab calculations. Different kinds of possible modes of atomic O and molecular O₂ adsorbed on CuCl(1 1 1) surface and possible dissociation pathways are identified, and the optimized geometry, adsorption energy, vibrational frequency and Mulliken charge are obtained. The calculated results show that the favorable adsorption occurs at hollow site for O atom, and molecular O₂ lying flatly on the surface with one O atom binding with top Cu atom is the most stable adsorption configuration. The O-O stretching vibrational frequencies are significantly red-shifted, and the charges transferred from CuCl to oxygen. Upon O₂ adsorption, the oxygen species adsorbed on CuCl(1 1 1) surface mainly shows the characteristic of the superoxo (O₂⁻), which primarily contributes to improving the catalytic activity of CuCl, meanwhile, a small quantity of O₂ dissociation into atomic O also occur, which need to overcome very large activation barrier. Our results can provide some microscopic information for the catalytic mechanism of DMC synthesis over CuCl catalyst from oxidative carbonylation of methanol.     

Energy threshold of Cs-induced chemisorption of oxygen on a GaAs(Cs,O) surface

The probability of Cs-induced chemisorption of oxygen on a p-GaAs(Cs, O) surface is experimentally shown to be close to unity only when the work function does not exceed ～3.1 ± 0.1 eV. The measured adsorption energy threshold likely corresponds to the energy of the unoccupied level of the antibonding 2π* orbital of the O₂ molecule in the preadsorption state on the semiconductor surface.