Hydroxylation Structure and Proton Transfer Reactivity at the Zinc Oxide-Water Interface

The hydroxylation structural features of the first adsorption layer and its connection to proton transfer reactivity have been studied for the ZnO-liquid water interface at room temperature. Molecular dynamics simulations employing the ReaxFF forcefield were performed for water on seven ZnO surfaces with varying step concentrations. At higher water coverage a higher level of hydroxylation was found, in agreement with previous experimental results. We have also calculated the free energy barrier for transferring a proton to the surface, showing that stepped surfaces stabilize the hydroxylated state and decrease the water dissociation barrier. On highly stepped surfaces the barrier is only 2 kJ/mol or smaller. Outside the first adsorption layer no dissociation events were found during almost 100 ns of simulation time; this indicates that these reactions are much more likely if catalyzed by the metal oxide surface. Also, when exposed to a vacuum, the less stepped surfaces stabilize adsorption beyond monolayer coverage

Sub-surface Oxygen and Surface Oxide Formation at Ag(111): A Density-functional Theory Investigation

To help provide insight into the remarkable catalytic behavior of the oxygen/silver system for heterogeneous oxidation reactions, purely sub-surface oxygen, and structures involving both on-surface and sub-surface oxygen, as well as oxide-like structures at the Ag(111) surface have been studied for a wide range of coverages and adsorption sites using density-functional theory. Adsorption on the surface in fcc sites is energetically favorable for low coverages, while for higher coverage a thin surface-oxide structure is energetically favorable. This structure has been proposed to correspond to the experimentally observed (4x4) phase. With increasing O concentrations, thicker oxide-like structures resembling compressed Ag2O(111) surfaces are energetically favored. Due to the relatively low thermal stability of these structures, and the very low sticking probability of O2 at Ag(111), their formation and observation may require the use of atomic oxygen (or ozone, O3) and low temperatures. We also investigate diffusion of O into the sub-surface region at low coverage (0.11 ML), and the effect of surface Ag vacancies in the adsorption of atomic oxygen and ozone-like species. The present studies, together with our earlier investigations of on-surface and surface-substitutional adsorption, provide a comprehensive picture of the behavior and chemical nature of the interaction of oxygen and Ag(111), as well as of the initial stages of oxide formation.Comment: 17 pages including 14 figures, Related publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm

Multi-Lattice Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulations from First-Principles: Reduction of the Pd(100) Surface Oxide by CO

We present a multi-lattice kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) approach that efficiently describes the atomistic dynamics of morphological transitions between commensurate structures at crystal surfaces. As an example we study the reduction of a $(\sqrt{5}\times \sqrt{5})R27^{\circ}$ PdO(101) overlayer on Pd(100) in a CO atmosphere. Extensive density-functional theory calculations are used to establish an atomistic pathway for the oxide reduction process. First-principles multi-lattice kMC simulations on the basis of this pathway fully reproduce the experimental temperature dependence of the reduction rate [Fernandes et al., Surf. Sci. 2014, 621, 31-39] and highlight the crucial role of elementary processes special to the boundary between oxide and metal domains.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure

Ab-initio density functional study of O on the Ag(001) surface

The adsorption of oxygen on the Ag(001) is investigated by means of density functional techniques. Starting from a characterization of the clean silver surfaces oxygen adsorption in several modifications (molecularly, on-surface, sub-surface, Ag$_2$O) for varying coverage was studied. Besides structural parameters and adsorption energies also work-function changes, vibrational frequencies and core level energies were calculated for a better characterization of the adsorption structures and an easier comparison to the rich experimental data.Comment: 26 pages, 8 figures, Surf. Sci. accepte

O adsorption and incipient oxidation of the Mg(0001) surface

First principles density functional calculations are used to study the early oxidation stages of the Mg(0001) surface for oxygen coverages 1/16 <= Theta <= 3 monolayers. It is found that at very low coverages O is incorporated below the topmost Mg layer in tetrahedral sites. At higher oxygen-load the binding in on-surface sites is increased but at one monolayer coverage the on-surface binding is still about 60 meV weaker than for subsurface sites. The subsurface octahedral sites are found to be unfavorable compared to subsurface tetrahedral sites and to on-surface sites. At higher coverages oxygen adsorbs both under the surface and up. Our calculations predict island formation and clustering of incorporated and adsorbed oxygen in agreement with previous calculations. The calculated configurations are compared with the angle-scanned x-ray photoelectron diffraction experiment to determine the geometrical structure of the oxidized Mg(0001) surface.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Vanadium oxide monolayer catalysts. I. Preparation, characterization, and thermal stability

Vanadium oxide catalysts of the monolayer type have been prepared by means of chemisorption of vanadate(V)-anions from aqueous solutions and by chemisorption of gaseous V2O3(OH)4. Using Al2O3, Cr2O3, TiO2, CeO2 and ZrO2, catalysts with an approximately complete monomolecular layer of vanadium(V) oxide on the carrier oxides can be prepared, if temperature is not too high. Divalent metal oxides like CdO and ZnO may already form threedimensional surface vanadates at moderate temperature. \ud The thermal stability of a monolayer catalyst is related to the parameter z/a, i. e. the ratio of the carrier cation charge to the sum of ionic radii of carrier cation and oxide anion. Thus, monolayer catalysts will be thermally stable only under the condition that z/a is not too high (aggregated catalyst) nor too small (ternary compound formation)

Ordered Array of Single Au Adatoms with Remarkable Thermal Stability: Au/Fe3O4(001)

We present a Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) investigation of gold deposited at the magnetite Fe3O4(001) surface at room temperature. This surface forms a reconstruction with (\surd2\times\surd2)R45{\deg} symmetry, where pairs of Fe and neighboring O ions are slightly displaced laterally, forming undulating rows with 'narrow' and 'wide' adsorption sites. At fractional monolayer coverages, single Au adatoms adsorb exclusively at the narrow sites, with no significant sintering up to annealing temperatures of 400 {\deg}C. The strong preference for this site is possibly related to charge and orbital ordering within the first subsurface layer of the reconstructed Fe3O4(001) surface. Because of their high thermal stability, the ordered Au atoms at Fe3O4(001)- (\surd2\times\surd2)R45{\deg} could provide useful for probing the chemical reactivity of single atomic species.Comment: Duplicate entry, newer version at 1205.0915. http://arxiv.org/abs/1205.091

Dynamic Phase Diagram of Catalytic Surface of Hexagonal Boron Nitride under Conditions of Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Propane.

Partially oxidized surfaces of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and several metal borides are unexpectedly excellent catalysts for oxidative dehydrogenation of alkanes to olefins, but the nature of the active site(s) on these B-containing interfaces remains elusive. We characterize the surface of the partially oxidized B-rich hBN surface under reaction conditions from first principles. The interface has thermal access to multiple different stoichiometries and multiple structures of each stoichiometry. The size of the thermal ensemble is composition-dependent. The phase diagram of the interface constructed on the basis of the statistical ensembles of many accessible states is very different from the one based on global minima. Phase boundaries shift and blur, and phases consist of several stoichiometries and structures. The BO layer transiently exposes the reactive -B═O motifs in the metastable states. The fluxionality and structural diversity emerging under reaction conditions must be taken into account in theoretically descriptions of the catalytic interface