Vanadium oxides on aluminum oxide supports. 2. Structure, vibrational properties, and reducibility of V2O5 clusters on alpha-Al2O3(0001)

The structure, stability, and vibrational properties of isolated V2O5 clusters on the Al2O3(0001) surface have been studied by density functional theory and statistical thermodynamics. The most stable structure does not possess vanadyl oxygen atoms. The positions of the oxygen atoms are in registry with those of the alumina support, and both vanadium atoms occupy octahedral sites. Another structure with one vanadyl oxygen atom is only 0.12 eV less stable. Infrared spectra are calculated for the two structures. The highest frequency at 922 cm(-1) belongs to a V-O stretch in the V-O-Al interface bonds, which supports the assignment of such a mode to the band observed around 941 cm(-1) for vanadia particles on alumina. Removal of a bridging oxygen atom from the most stable cluster at the V-O-Al interface bond costs 2.79 eV. Removal of a (vanadyl) oxygen atom from a thin vanadia film on alpha-Al2O3 costs 1.3 eV more, but removal from a V2O5(001) single-crystal surface costs 0.9 eV less. Similar to the V2O5(001) surface, the facile reduction is due to substantial structure relaxations that involve formation of an additional V-O-V bond and yield a pair of V(IV)(d1) sites instead of a V(III)(d2)/V(V)(d0) pair.     

The structure of epitaxial V2O3 films and their surfaces: A medium energy ion scattering study

Medium energy ion scattering, using 100 keV H⁺ incident ions, has been used to investigate the growth of epitaxial films, up to thicknesses of ~ 200 Å, of V₂O₃ on both Pd(111) and Au(111). Scattered-ion energy spectra provide a measure of the average film thickness and the variations in this thickness, and show that, with suitable annealing, the crystalline quality is good. Plots of the scattering yield as a function of scattering angle, so-called blocking curves, have been measured for two different incidence directions and have been used to determine the surface structure. Specifically, scattering simulations for a range of different model structures show poor agreement with experiment for half-metal (….V′O₃V) and vanadyl (….V′O₃V=O) terminations, with and without surface interlayer relaxations. However, good agreement with experiment is found for the modified oxygen-termination structure, first proposed by Kresse et al., in which a subsurface V half-metal layer is moved up into the outermost V buckled metal layer to produce a VO₂ overlayer on the underlying V₂O₃, with an associated layer structure of ….O₃VV′′V ′O₃. This result is consistent with the predictions of thermodynamic equilibrium at the surface under the surface preparation conditions, but is at variance with the conclusions of earlier studies of this system that have favoured the vanadyl termination. The results of these previous studies are re-evaluated in the light of the new result.     

Counting electrons transferred through a thin alumina film into Au chains

Low-temperature STM measurements combined with density functional theory calculations are employed to study the adsorption of gold on alumina/NiAl(110). The binding of Au monomers involves breaking of an oxide Al-O bond below the adatom and stabilizing the hence undercoordinated O ion by forming a new bond to an Al atom in the NiAl. The adsorption implies negative charging of the adatom. The linear arrangement of favorable binding sites induces the self-organization of Au atoms into chains. For every ad-chain, the number of transfer electrons from the support is determined by analyzing the node structure of the corresponding highest occupied molecular orbital.     

Catalysis and corrosion: the theoretical surface-science context

Numerous experiments in ultra-high vacuum as well as (T=0 K, p=0) theoretical studies on surfaces have been performed over the last decades in order to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms, which, for example, underlie the phenomena of catalysis and corrosion. Often the results achieved this way cannot be extrapolated directly to the technologically relevant situation of finite temperature and high pressure. Accordingly, modern surface science has realized that bridging the so-called pressure gap (getting out of the vacuum) is the inevitable way to go. Of similar importance are studies in which the temperature is changed systematically (warming up and cooling down). Both aspects are being taken into account in recent experiments and ab initio calculations.

In this paper we stress that there is still much to learn and important questions to be answered concerning the complex atomic and molecular processes which occur at surfaces and actuate catalysis and corrosion, although significant advances in this exciting field have been made over the years. We demonstrate how synergetic effects between theory and experiment are leading to the next step, which is the development of simple concepts and understanding of the different modes of the interaction of chemisorbed species with surfaces. To a large extent this is being made possible by recent developments in theoretical methodology, which allow to extend the ab initio (i.e., starting from the self-consistent electronic structure) approach to poly-atomic complexes with 10,000 and more atoms, time scales of seconds, and involved statistics (e.g., ab initio molecular dynamics with 10,000 and more trajectories). In this paper we will

1. sketch recent density–functional theory based hybrid methods, which bridge the length and time scales from those of electron orbitals to meso- and macroscopic proportions, and

2. present some key results on properties of surfaces, demonstrating their role in corrosion and heterogeneous catalysis. In particular we discuss

◦ the influence of the ambient gas phase on the surface structure and stoichiometry,

◦ adsorbate phase transitions and thermal desorption, and

◦ the role of atoms' dynamics and statistics for the surface chemical reactivity.

Vanadium oxides on aluminum oxide supports. 1. Surface termination and reducibility of vanadia films on alpha-Al2O3(0001)

Using density functional theory and statistical thermodynamics, we obtained the phase diagram of thin VnOm films of varying thickness (approximately 2-6 A, 1-6 vanadium layers) supported on alpha-Al2O3(0001). Depending on the temperature, oxygen pressure, and vanadium concentration, films with different thickness and termination may form. In ultrahigh vacuum (UHV), at room temperature and for low vanadium concentrations, an ultrathin (1 x 1) O=V-terminated film is most stable. As more vanadium is supplied, the thickest possible films form. Their structures and terminations correspond to previous findings for the (0001) surface of bulk V2O3 [Kresse et al., Surf. Sci. 2004, 555, 118]. The presence of surface vanadyl (O=V) groups is a prevalent feature. They are stable up to at least 800 K in UHV. Vanadyl oxygen atoms induce a V(2p) core-level shift of about 2 eV on the surface V atoms. The reducibility of the supported films is characterized by the energy of oxygen defect formation. For the stable structures, the results vary between 4.11 and 3.59 eV per 1/2O2. In contrast, oxygen removal from the V2O5(001) surface is much easier (1.93 eV). This provides a possible explanation for the lower catalytic activity of vanadium oxides supported on alumina compared to that of crystalline vanadia particles.     

Role of subsurface oxygen in oxide formation at transition metal surfaces

We present a density-functional theory trend study addressing the incorporation of oxygen into the basal plane of the late 4d transition metals (TMs) from Ru to Ag. Occupation of subsurface sites is always connected with a significant distortion of the host lattice, rendering it initially less favorable than on-surface chemisorption. Penetration starts only after a critical coverage theta(c), which is lower for the softer metals towards the right of the TM series. The computed theta(c) are found to be very similar to those above which the bulk oxide phase becomes thermodynamically more stable, thus suggesting that the initial incorporation of O actuates the formation of a surface oxide on TM surfaces.     

Crystal structure and vibrational spectra of AlVO4. A DFT study

We present periodic density functional calculations within the generalized gradient approximation (Perdew-Wang 91) on structure and vibrational properties of bulk AlVO(4). The optimized structure agrees well with crystallographic data obtained by Rietveld refinement (the mean absolute deviation of bond distances is 0.032 A), but the deviations are larger for the lighter oxygen atoms than for the heavier Al and V atoms. All observed bands in the Raman and IR spectrum have been assigned to calculated harmonic frequencies. Bands in the 1020-900 cm(-1) region have been assigned to V-O((2)) stretches in V-O((2))-Al bonds. The individual bands do not arise from vibrations of only one bond, not even from vibrations of several bonds of one VO(4) tetrahedron. The results confirm that vibrations around 940 cm(-1) observed for vanadia particles supported on thin alumina film are V-O-Al interface modes with 2-fold coordinated oxygen atoms in the V-O((2))-Al interface bonds.     

Reduction of the (001) surface of gamma-V2O5 compared to alpha-V2O5

The defect-free gamma-V(2)O(5)(001) surface and ordered structures of oxygen vacancies have been studied for a wide range of defect concentrations, Theta ((1)/(6) monolayer (ML) < or = Theta < or = 1 ML), combining density functional theory and statistical thermodynamics. The gamma polymorph of V(2)O(5) is characterized by two structurally different vanadium sites, V(A) and V(B). The V(A) sites having a weaker bond to an adjacent crystal layer are easier to reduce. Up to (1)/(2) ML, the V(A) defect structures with defects aligned along the [010] direction are increasingly more stable as in alpha-V(2)O(5)(001). At higher defect concentrations, the different coordination of the V(B) vanadium atoms at the gamma-V(2)O(5) surface causes an increase in the vacancy formation energy of approximately 0.8 eV/atom at Theta = 1.0 compared to Theta = (1)/(2). For alpha-V(2)O(5), this increase amounts to 0.2 eV/atom only. Under conditions (low oxygen partial pressures and high temperatures) at which the alpha-V(2)O(5)(001) surface would be fully reduced, the gamma-V(2)O(5)(001) surface is only partially reduced. The presence of surface vanadyl oxygen groups at V(B) sites may change the surface reactivity compared to that of alpha-V(2)O(5)(001).