1.Lappeenranta University of Technology,Lappeenranta,Finland;2.Aalto University, School of Science, Department of AppliedPhysics,Aalto,Finland
Abstract:
Ab initio computational methods are used to study the relevance of van der Waals interactions in the case of a hydrogen molecule adsorption on the Ru(0001) surface. In addition to the clean surface, the effects of ruthenium adatom and vacancy on the process are studied. The adsorption characteristics are analyzed in terms of two dimensional cuts of the potential energy surface (PES). Based on the earlier studies for such systems, we mostly concentrate on the trajectories where the hydrogen molecule approaches the surface in parallel orientation. The results indicate that for a clean Ru(0001) the calculations applying the non-local van der Waals potentials yield higher barriers for the dissociation of the H2 molecule. Of the high symmetry sites on Ru(0001), the top site is found to be the most reactive one. The vacancy and ruthenium adatom sites exhibit high dissociation barriers compared with the clean surface.