H2 Formation on Cosmic Grain Siliceous Surfaces Grafted with Fe+: A Silsesquioxanes‐Based Computational Model

Cosmic siliceous dust grains are involved in the synthesis of H₂ in the inter‐stellar medium. In this work, the dust grain siliceous surface is represented by a hydrogen Fe‐metalla‐silsesquioxane model of general formula: Fe(H₇Si₇O_12?n)(OH)_n]⁺ (n=0,1,2) where Fe⁺ behaves like a single‐site heterogeneous catalyst grafted on a siliceous surface synthesizing H₂ from H. A computational analysis is performed using two levels of theory (B3LYP‐D3BJ and MP2‐F12) to quantify the thermodynamic driving force of the reaction: Fe‐T7H₇]⁺+4H→Fe‐T7H₇(OH)₂]⁺+H₂. The general outcomes are: 1) H₂ synthesis is thermodynamically strongly favored; 2) Fe‐H / Fe‐H₂ barrier‐less formation potential; 3) chemisorbed H‐Fe leads to facile H₂ synthesis at 20≤T≤100 K; 4) relative spin energetics and thermodynamic quantities between the B3LYP‐D3BJ and MP2‐F12 levels of theory are in qualitative agreement. The metalla‐silsesquioxane model shows how Fe⁺ fixed on a siliceous surface can potentially catalyze H₂ formation in space.