Density Functional Study of Catalytic Activity of Cu12TM for Water Gas Shift Reaction

Based on density functional theory calculations, we have systematically studied the WGS reaction on various nanosized Cu₁₂TM of Co, Ni, Cu (from the 3d row), Rh, Pd, Ag (from the 4d row), Ir, Pt, Au (from the 5d row). The reaction mechanism proposed by Langmuir–Hinshelwood has been followed, which corresponds to ({text{CO* + OH* }} to {text{COOH*}} to {text{CO}}_{2} {text{ + H*}}). The comparison of the Gibbs free energy profiles of carboxyl mechanism on different Cu₁₂TM systems concludes that WGS reaction is determined by the steps of H₂ forming and OH* reacting with CO* to form COOH*. BEP relationship between activation barriers (Ea) and reaction energies (ΔH) on a series of Cu₁₂TM clusters is very good. What’s more, the activation barrier of rate-determining step of Cu₁₂Au is the smallest. TOF, with the aid of An Energetic Span Model (ESM), is used to estimate the efficiency of the different Cu₁₂TM clusters. The results show that the values of TOFs in doping Cu₁₂Rh, Cu₁₂Ir and Cu₁₂Pt are smaller than that in pure Cu. Moreover, the values of TOFs in doping Cu₁₂Co, Cu₁₂Ni, Cu₁₂Pd, Cu₁₂Ag, and Cu₁₂Au are higher than that in Cu₁₃. The higher value of TOF, the more favorable catalysts they are. This results shoud be helpful in developing efficient catalysts for WGS reaction. Finally, d-band center is used to explain the binding energy of CO and H₂O. It shows that there is a good liner relationship between d-band center and binding energy of CO but not for H₂O.