Two-photon photoemission study of the coverage-dependent electronic structure of chemisorbed alkali atoms on a Ag(111) surface

We report a systematic investigation of the electronic structure of chemisorbed alkali atoms (Li-Cs) on a Ag(111) surface by two-photon photoemission spectroscopy. Angle-resolved two-photon photoemission spectra are obtained for 0-0.1 monolayer coverage of alkali atoms. The interfacial electronic structure as a function of periodic properties and the coverage of alkali atoms is observed and interpreted assuming ionic adsorbate/substrate interaction. The energy of the alkali atom σ-resonance at the limit of zero coverage is primarily determined by the image charge interaction, whereas at finite alkali atom coverages, it follows the formation of a dipolar surface field. The coverage- and angle-dependent two-photon photoemission spectra provide information on the photoinduced charge-transfer excitation of adsorbates on metal surfaces. This work complements the previous work on alkali/Cu(111) chemisorption [Phys. Rev. B 2008, 78, 085419].     

Theoretical study of NO adsorption/dissociation on Pd (100) and (111) surfaces

Both adsorption and dissociation of the diatomic molecular NO on Pd (100) and (111) surfaces are studied using the extended London‐Eyring‐Polyani‐Sato (LEPS) method constructed by means of 5‐MP (the 5‐parameter Morse potential). All critical characteristics of the system that we obtain, such as adsorption geometry, binding energy, eigenvalues for vibration, are in good agreement with the experimental results. On Pd (100) surface, NO prefers to adsorb in fourfold hollow site (H) uprightly at low coverage. With increase in the coverage NO gradually tilts in fourfold hollow and bridge sites. For NO? Pd (111) system, two adsorption states are found at low coverage, of which one adsorption state is the B(tilt) state that the centroid of NO projects at bridge site, another (H? B? H state) that NO almost parallels to the (111) surface with the vibration frequency of 610 cm^?1, but the frequency is near to that of the atoms, which is easy to be ignored in experiments. At high coverage, two transitional states (BH and HT) are found. NO is difficult to dissociate on Pd (100) and (111) surfaces. Especially for NO? Pd (111) system, the three‐well‐potential dissociation mode is initially put forward to show the remarkable dissociation process with two dissociation transitional states of NO on Pd (111). Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Configurational correlations in the coverage dependent adsorption energies of oxygen atoms on late transition metal fcc(111) surfaces

The coverage dependence of oxygen adsorption energies on the fcc(111) surfaces of seven different transition metals (Rh, Ir, Pd, Pt, Cu, Au, and Ag) is demonstrated through density functional theory calculations on 20 configurations ranging from one to five adsorption sites and coverages up to 1 ML. Atom projected densities of states are used to demonstrate that the d-band mediated adsorption mechanism is responsible for the coverage dependence of the adsorption energies. This common bonding mechanism results in a linear correlation that relates the adsorption energies of each adsorbate configuration across different metal surfaces to each other. The slope of this correlation is shown to be related to the characteristics of the valence d-orbitals and band structure of the surface metal atoms. Additionally, it is shown that geometric similarity of the configurations is essential to observe the configurational correlations.     

Solvent effects on the adsorption and self-organization of Mn12 on Au(111)

A sulfur-containing single molecule magnet, [Mn12O12(O2CC6H4SCH3)16(H2O)4], was assembled from solution on a Au(111) surface affording both submonolayer and monolayer coverages. The adsorbate morphology and the degree of coverage were inspected by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) allowed the determination of the chemical nature of the adsorbate on a qualitative and quantitative basis. The properties of the adsorbates were found to be strongly dependent on the solvent used to dissolve the magnetic complex. In particular, systems prepared from tetrahydrofuran solutions gave arrays of isolated and partially ordered clusters on the gold substrate, while samples prepared from dichloromethane exhibited a homogeneous monolayer coverage of the whole Au(111) surface. These findings are relevant to the optimization of magnetic addressing of single molecule magnets on surfaces.     

Density functional theory study of the adsorption of alkanethiols on Cu(111), Ag(111), and Au(111) in the low and high coverage regimes

The structure, the surface bonding, and the energetics of alkanethiols adsorbed on Cu(111), Ag(111), and Au(111) surfaces were studied under low and high coverages. The potential energy surfaces (PES) for the thiol/metal interaction were investigated in the absence and presence of externally applied electric fields in order to simulate the effect of the electrode potential on the surface bonding. The electric field affects the corrugation of the PES which decreases for negative fields and increases for positive fields. In the structural investigation, we considered the relaxation of the adsorbate and the surface. The highest relaxation in a direction perpendicular to the surface was observed for gold atoms, whereas silver atoms presented the highest relaxation in a plane parallel to the surface. The surface relaxation is more important in the low coverage limit. The surface bonding was investigated by means of the total and projected density of states analysis. The highest ionic character was observed on the copper surface whereas the highest covalent character occurs on gold. This leads to a strong dependence of the PES with the tilt angle of the adsorbate on Au(111) whereas this dependence is less pronounced on the other metals. Thus, the adsorbate-relaxation and the metal-relaxation contributions to the binding energy are more important on gold. The adsorption of thiols on gold was investigated on the 111 surface as well as on a surface with gold adatoms in order to elucidate the effect of thiols on the surface diffusion of gold. The CH(3)CH(2)S radical adsorbs ontop of the gold adatom. The diffusional barrier of the CH(3)CH(2)SAu species is lower than that for a bare gold adatom and is also lower than that for the bare thiol radical. The adsorption of the molecular species CH(3)SH and CH(3)CH(2)SH was also investigated on Au(111). They adsorb via the sulfur atom ontop of a gold atom. On the other hand, the adsorption of the alkanethiol radicals on the perfect 111 surfaces occurs on the face centered cubic (fcc)-bridge site in the low coverage limit for all metals and shifts toward the fcc site at high coverage on copper and silver.     

NO在氧预吸附Ir(100)表面吸附和解离的第一性原理研究

采用第一性原理密度泛函理论和周期性平板模型研究了NO在O预吸附Ir(100)表面的吸附和解离, 并考察了预吸附的O对可能产物N₂, N₂O和NO₂的选择性的影响. 优化得到反应过程中初态、 过渡态和末态的吸附构型, 并获得反应的势能面信息. 计算结果表明, NO在O预吸附表面最稳定的吸附位是桥位, 其次是顶位. 桥位和顶位的NO在表面存在两条解离通道, 即直接解离通道和由桥位和顶位扩散到平行空位, 继而发生N-O键断裂生成N原子和O原子的解离通道. 此分离机理与洁净表面上NO解离机理相同, 但后一种解离方式优于前一种, 是NO在表面上解离的主要通道. 预吸附的O原子在不同程度上抑制了NO的解离, 导致桥位和顶位NO解离互相竞争. 在O预吸附Ir(100)表面, N₂气是唯一的产物, 不会有副产物N₂O和NO₂的生成, 与实验结果一致. 预吸附的O在N/O低覆盖度下几乎不影响N₂气的生成, 但在较高覆盖度下则促进了N₂气的生成.     

Theoretical study of CCl(4) adsorption and hydrogenation on a Pt (111) surface

The adsorption and hydrogenation of carbon tetrachloride (CCl(4)) on a Pt (111) surface have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT). We have performed calculations on the adsorption energies and structures of CCl(4) on four different adsorption sites of a Pt (111) surface using the full adsorbate geometry optimization method. The results show that the adsorption energy of all of the potential sites is less than -17 kcal/mol, which indicates that CCl(4) is physiosorbed on a Pt (111) surface through van der Waals interactions. The dissociation and hydrogenation pathways were investigated by a transition state search. For the Pt(15), Pt(19), and Pt(25) cluster surfaces, the activation energies of dissociation obtained in this work are 15.69, 16.94, and 16.77 kcal/mol, respectively. The hydrogenation of CCl(3). was studied at the on-top site of the Pt(15) cluster, and the calculated activation energy is 5.06 kcal/mol. The small activation energies indicate that the Pt (111) surface has high catalytic activity for the CCl(4) hydrogenation reaction. In addition, the Hirshfeld population analysis reveals that the charge transfer from the Pt (111) surface to the adsorbates occurs in both the dissociation and hydrogenation pathways.     

Adsorption, vibration, and diffusion of O atoms on Rh low-index and (711) stepped defective surfaces

The adsorption, vibration, and diffusion of O atoms on Rh(100), Rh(111), Rh(110), and Rh(711) surfaces were studied using the 5-parameter Morse potential (5-MP) of interaction between an adatom and a metal surface cluster. Our theoretical calculations provide information about adsorption sites, adsorption geometry, binding energy, and eigenvibration. Our results agreed very well with experimental results. Four major results follow. First, the theoretical calculation showed that on the Rh(100) surface the 4-fold hollow site is the only adsorption site. Second, on the O-Rh(111) system, the 3-fold hollow site is the stable adsorption site. Third, on the Rh(110) surface at low coverage, the O atom is adsorbed preferably on the pseudo-3-fold site, while with increasing coverage, the O atom is adsorbed not only on the pseudo-3-fold site but also on the long bridge site. Last, as for the Rh(711) stepped surface, the 3-fold site on the (111) step is metastable, whereas the 4-fold sites on the (100) terrace are stable, which enables the O atoms to diffuse easily from the 3-fold to the 4-fold site at low coverage. Therefore, the O atoms are adsorbed preferrably on the stable 4-fold sites of the (100) terrace and then later as coverage increases on the metastable 3-fold site of the (110) step.     

Adsorption properties versus oxidation states of rutile TiO2(110)

Using density functional theory we have studied the adsorption properties of different atoms and molecules deposited on a stoichiometric, reduced, and oxidized rutile TiO(2)(110) surface. Depending on the oxidation state of the surface, electrons can flow from or to the substrate and, therefore, negatively or positively charged species are expected. In particular, we have found that a charge transfer process from or to the surface always occurs for highly electronegative or highly electropositive species, respectively. For atoms or molecules with intermediate electron affinity, the direction of the charge flow depends on the oxidation state of the rutile surface and on the adsorption site. Generally, the charging effect leads to more stable complexes. However, the increase in the binding energy of the adsorbates is highly dependent on the electronic states of the surface prior to the adsorption event. In this work we have analyzed in details these mechanisms and we have also established a direct correlation between the enhanced binding energy of the adsorbates and the induced gap states.     

Low-temperature mobility and structure formation of a prochiral aromatic thiol (2,5-dichlorothiophenol) on Cu(111)

We present a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy study of increasing coverages of 2,5-dichlorothiophenol, an asymmetrically halo-substituted aromatic thiol, on Cu(111). At low coverage, deprotonation of the thiol occurs spontaneously upon adsorption at 80 K. Albeit the low deposition temperature, we find the formation of adsorbate islands at low coverage, which coalesce into a well-ordered film of horizontally adsorbed molecules at increasing coverage. This behavior indicates (i) significant mobility of the thiols on Cu(111) even at low temperatures and (ii) attractive adsorbate-adsorbate interactions. At higher coverages intermolecular interactions prevent long-range diffusion of adsorbates and thermal activation of the S-H bond becomes necessary. A close analysis of the molecular films reveals chiral recognition between neighboring molecules, which leads to the formation of enantiopure areas on the surface. Upright orientation of individual molecules starts at the boundaries between such phases and can be induced by scanning tunneling microscopy.     

Photoassisted adsorption of allylamine and 1-butene on H:Si(111) studied by surface vibrational spectroscopies

Ultraviolet photoassisted adsorption of terminally double-bonded molecules, allylamine (CH2=CH-CH2-NH2) and 1-butene (CH2=CH-CH2-CH3), on hydrogen-terminated silicon (111) surface was attempted to obtain adsorbates covalently terminating the surface Si atoms. The adsorption process was monitored by high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, multiple internal infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy. Allylamine adsorbates emerged upon delivery of allylamine gas under ultraviolet irradiation. The N-H bonds in allylamine were evidenced to survive over the photoadsorption process by vibrational analysis and by the reaction with ketene. CH3- groups were detected at low coverage, indicating anchoring of the organic moieties by the secondary (sec-) type carbon atoms, which were taken over by the primary (n-) type with increasing coverage. C-D bonds were detected after deposition on deuterium-terminated Si(111) upon incorporation of Si-terminating H into the hydrocarbon part of adsorbates. In the case of 1-butene, not only the C=C end but also the CH3- end of a molecule might attach on Si, resulting in emergence of adsorbates composed of CH2 groups. The newly obtained adsorbates are prospective as a material applied for nanolithography, fine electrochemistry, and nano-biotechnology.     

Suppression of field emission from W(110) and W(111) by Cu overlayers

The total energy distribution and the Fowler-Nordheim preexponential factor have been measured for field emission from the (100) and (111) facets of tungsten in the absence and in the presence of overlayers of chemisorbed copper. It is found that at close to monolayer coverage on the (100) facet the adsorbate dramatically reduces the surface density of states at the Fermi energy, whereas on the (111) facet the surface density of states at the Fermi energy is little affected. Self-consistent, semirelativistic LMTO calculations of the k-resolved layer densities of states at the centre of the surface Brillouin zone have been carried out for a tungsten-vacuum interface with and without an ordered overlayer of copper. According to the calculations, a copper monolayer on W(100) strongly suppresses the surface density of states at the Fermi energy, whereas for a copper monolayer on W(111) no such suppression is predicted. The consistency of these results with the experimental data indicates the promise of the present method for calculating the electronic structures of metal-vacuum interfaces.     

HCN Adsorption on the Fe(100), Fe(111) and Fe(110) Surfaces: a Density Functional Theory Study

Twenty kinds of adsorptions of HCN on the Fe(100), Fe(111) and Fe(110) surfaces at the 1/4 monolayer coverage are found using the density functional theory. For Fe(100), the adsorption energy of the most stable configuration where the HCN locates at the fourfold site with the C-N bonded to four Fe atoms is 1.928 eV. The most favored adsorption structure for HCN on Fe(111) is f-η3(N)-h-η3(C), in which the C-N bond is almost parallel to the surface, and the adsorption energy is 1.347 eV. On Fe(110), the adsorption energy in the most stable configuration in which HCN locates at the two long-bridge sites is 1.777 eV. The adsorption energy of the parallel orientation for HCN is larger than that of the perpendicular configuration. The binding mechanism of HCN on the Fe(100), Fe(111) and Fe(110) surfaces is also analyzed by Mulliken charge population and the density of states in HCN. The result indicates that the configurations in which the adsorbed HCN becomes the non-linear are beneficial to the formation of the addition reaction for hydrogen. The nature that the introduction of Fe into the catalyst could increase the catalytic activity of the bimetallic catalyst in the addition reaction of hydrogen for nitriles is revealed.     

甲硫醇在Cu(111)表面的解离吸附: 密度泛函理论研究

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法和平板模型研究了CH₃SH分子在Cu(111)表面的吸附反应.系统地计算了S原子在不同位置以不同方式吸附的一系列构型, 第一次得到未解离的CH₃SH分子在Cu(111)表面顶位上的稳定吸附构型,该构型吸附属于弱的化学吸附, 吸附能为0.39 eV. 计算同时发现在热力学上解离结构比未解离结构更加稳定. 解离的CH₃S吸附在桥位和中空位之间, 吸附能为0.75-0.77 eV. 计算分析了未解离吸附到解离吸附的两条反应路径, 最小能量路径的能垒为0.57 eV. 计算结果还表明S―H键断裂后的H原子并不是以H₂分子的形式从表面解吸附而是以与表面成键的形式存在. 通过比较S原子在独立的CH₃SH分子和吸附状态下的局域态密度, 发现S―H键断裂后S原子和表面的键合强于未断裂时S原子和表面的键合.     

Theoretical Investigations of the Activation of CO_2 on the Transition Metal-doped Cu(100) and Cu(111) Surfaces

Periodic density functional theory calculations have been performed to investigate the chemisorption behavior of CO_2 molecule on a series of surface alloys that are built by dispersing individual middle-late transition metal(TM) atoms(TM = Fe, Co, Ni, Ru, Rh, Pd, Ag, Os, Ir, Pt, Au) on the Cu(100) and Cu(111) surfaces. The most stable configurations of CO_2 chemisorbed on different TM/Cu surfaces are determined, and the results show that among the late transition metals, Co, Ru, and Os are potentially good dopants to enhance the chemisorption and activation of CO_2 on copper surfaces. To obtain a deep understanding of the adsorption property, the bonding characteristics of the adsorption bonds are carefully examined by the crystal orbital Hamilton population technique, which reveals that the TM atom primarily provides d orbitals with z-component, namely d_z~2, d_(xz), and d_(yz) orbitals to interact with the adsorbate.     

吸附O的Cu(110)c(2×1)表面原子结构和电子态

采用第一性原理的密度泛函理论方法计算了清洁Cu(110)表面和吸附O原子的Cu(110) c(2×1)表面的原子结构, 结构弛豫和电子结构, 得到了各种表面结构参数. 分别计算了O原子在Cu(110)表面三个可能吸附位置吸附后的能量, 并给出了能量最低的吸附位置上各层原子的弛豫特性和态密度. 结果表明O吸附后的Cu(110)表面有附加列(added-row)再构的特性, O原子吸附在最表层铜原子上方, 与衬底Cu原子的垂直距离为0.016 nm, 以氧分子为能量基准的吸附能为－1.94 eV; 同时由于Cu 3d- O 2p态的杂化作用使得低于费米能级5.5~6.0 eV的范围内出现了局域的表面态. 计算得到清洁的和氧吸附的Cu(110)表面的功函数分别为4.51 eV和4.68 eV. 电子态密度的结果表明：在Cu(110) c(2×1) 表面O吸附的结构下, 吸附O原子和金属衬底之间的结合主要是由于最表层Cu原子3d态和O原子2p态的相互作用.     

Car exhaust catalysis from first principles: selective NO reduction under excess O2 conditions on Ir

Combining energetic data from density functional theory with thermodynamic calculations, we have studied in detail selective NO reduction under excess O2 conditions on Ir. We show that excess O2 can readily poison the Ir catalyst for NO reduction and the poisoning starts from a low O coverage on the surface. The adsorbed O switches the reaction selectivity from reduction (N2 production) to oxidation (NO2 production). As the O coverage is built up, Ir metal can eventually be oxidized to IrO2, which is predicted to be thermodynamically possible under reaction conditions. To prevent O poisoning the surface, the presence of reductants is thus essential. We demonstrate that NO reduction is sensitive to the choice of reductant, and that alkenes are the most effective, mainly because they are able to produce surface C atoms that can selectively remove O atoms from Ir steps. On the basis of our analyses of the electronic structures, the mechanism of O-poisoning is elucidated and the reactant sensitivity in NO reduction is also discussed in terms of the bonding competition effect. We found that for different adsorbates, such as NO, O, and N, their bondings with surface d-states are remarkably similar. This gives rise to an indirect repulsion between adsorbates whenever they may bond with the same metal atoms. This energy cost can be qualitatively correlated with the valency of the adsorbate, and this is the key to understand the O-poisoning effect and the structure sensitivity in NO reduction.     

First-principles study of K and Cs adsorbed on Pd(111)

The adsorptions of K and Cs on Pd(111) were studied by the density functional calculations within the generalized gradient approximation. The site preference, bonding character, work function, and electron structure of the system were analyzed. For K and Cs adsorption, the hcp hollow site was found to be preferred for all the coverages investigated. The calculated adsorption geometries for (2 x 2) and (square root 3 x square root 3)R30 degrees phases are both in reasonable agreement with the observed results. The decrease of the work function upon the adsorption of K and Cs can be attributed to a dipole moment associated with the polarized adsorbate atom, which is characterized by depletion of the electron charge in the alkali metal layer and a charge accumulation in the interface region. Our results indicate that the bonding of alkali metal with the Pd(111) surface has a mixed ionic and metallic bond character at low coverage and a metallic bond of covalent character at high coverage.     

A first-principles study of K adsorption on Pb(111)

Ab initio total-energy density functional theory calculations with supercell models have been employed to investigate the R30 degrees and (2 x 2) structures of K on the Pb(111) surface. Four "on-surface" sites and a substitutional site were considered. The calculations showed that the substitutional site is more stable than all the on-surface sites, due to its low vacancy formation energy. The calculated R30 degrees geometry agrees well with the LEED results. The density-of-states analysis indicates that the K atom loses part of its loosely bound valence s electron. From the electron density distributions, it was found that the lowering of the work function after the substitutional adsorption can be attributed to the dipole moment, associated with the positively polarized adsorbate atom that is characterized by charge depletion from the K vacuum sides and charge accumulation in the region between K and Pb atoms. Our results indicate that the bonding of K with the Pb(111) surface has a mixed ionic and metallic bond character.