DFT study on the adsorption and dissociation of hydrogen sulfide on MgO nanotube

The adsorption of a H₂S molecule on the surface of an MgO nanotube was investigated using density functional theory. It was found that H₂S molecule can be associatively adsorbed on the tube surface without any energy barrier or it can be dissociated into –H and –SH species overcoming energy barrier of 4.03–7.77 kcal/mol. The associative adsorption is site selective so that the molecule is oriented in such a way that the sulfur atom was linked to an Mg atom. The HOMO–LUMO energy gap of the tube has slightly changed upon associative adsorption, while they were significantly influenced by dissociation process. Especially, the highest occupied molecular orbital of the tube shifts to higher energies which can facilitate electron emission current from the tube surface. Also, energy gap of the tube dramatically decreased by about 0.93–1.05 eV which influences the electrical conductivity of the tube.