Dissociative Chemisorption of O2 on Al(111): Dynamics on a Correlated Wave-Function-Based Potential Energy Surface

Rongrong Yin, Yaolong Zhang, Florian Libisch, Emily A. Carter, Hua Guo, Bin Jiang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Scopus citations

Abstract

Dissociative chemisorption of O2 on the Al(111) surface represents an extensively studied prototype for understanding the interaction between O2 and metal surfaces. It is well known that the experimentally observed activation barrier for O2 dissociation is not captured by conventional density functional theory. The interpretation of this barrier as a result of spin transitions along the reaction path has been challenged by recent embedded correlated wave function (ECW) calculations that naturally yield an adiabatic barrier. However, the ECW calculations have been limited to a static analysis of the reaction pathways and have not yet been tested by dynamics simulations. We present a global six-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) for this system parametrized with ECW data points. This new PES provides a reasonable description of the site-specific and orientation-dependent activation barriers. Quasi-classical trajectory calculations on this PES semiquantitatively reproduce both the observed translational energy dependence of the sticking probability and steric effects with aligned O2 molecules.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3271-3277
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Physical Chemistry Letters
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 21 2018

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Dissociative Chemisorption of O2 on Al(111): Dynamics on a Correlated Wave-Function-Based Potential Energy Surface'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this