Orbital interactions in large molecular systems: Adsorption of H2 on Ni surfaces

The concept of orbital interactions is applied to the adsorption of H₂ on to the Ni (110) and (111) surfaces. We calculate first two orbitals of a Ni cluster one of which forms an orbital pair with the σ MO and the other with the σ*MO of a H₂ molecule. Contributions of these paired orbitals of fragments to the density of states of the surface-adsorbate extended system are then examined. It is shown that the orbital of the surface that participates in electron delocalization to σ* of the H₂ molecule is located significantly below the Fermi level both in the (110) and in the (111) adsorption models. The σ MO of H₂ and its counterpart of the surface represent mainly overlap repulsion which is shown to be stronger on the (111) surface than on the (110) surface. It is feasible to understand chemical interactions of large systems by using the paired interacting orbitals.