TY - JOUR
T1 - Adsorption and Dissociation of CO on Bare and Ni-Decorated Stepped Rh(553) Surfaces
AU - Stroppa, Alessandro
AU - Mittendorfer, Florian
AU - Andersen, Jesper N.
AU - Parteder, Georg
AU - Allegretti, Francesco
AU - Surnev, Svetlozar L.
AU - Netzer, Falko P.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - The adsorption and dissociation of carbon monoxide were studied with plane-wave density functional theory on flat Rh(111), stepped and kinked Rh(553), and Ni-decorated Rh(553) surfaces. The theoretical results were compared to high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HR-XPS) experiments. The most favorable CO adsorption sites for low coverages were identified by a systematic calculation of the adsorption energies, and their sequence of occupation as a function of CO exposure was determined experimentally in C 1s HR-XPS spectra via their characteristic surface core-level shifts. On the clean, stepped (553) surface, molecular CO is adsorbed more strongly on low-coordinated top sites at the step edge, but on the Ni-decorated surface, the binding is stronger at the terrace sites. The barrier for dissociation with respect to the gas phase is about 1 eV lower on the stepped Rh(553) surface than on the flat Rh(111) surface, implying a substantially higher reaction rate. The presence of kinks at the clean Rh(553) surface does not lead to a significant additional decrease of the dissociation barriers, resulting in dissociation energies just above the desorption threshold for both stepped and kinked surfaces, whereas the barrier can be additionally lowered by about 0.1 eV by decorating the step edges with Ni stripes. Whereas no dissociation of CO was observed by HR-XPS on the clean Rh(553) surface, a minor amount of CO dissociation was found on the Ni-decorated Rh surface, in agreement with the theoretical predictions.
AB - The adsorption and dissociation of carbon monoxide were studied with plane-wave density functional theory on flat Rh(111), stepped and kinked Rh(553), and Ni-decorated Rh(553) surfaces. The theoretical results were compared to high-resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HR-XPS) experiments. The most favorable CO adsorption sites for low coverages were identified by a systematic calculation of the adsorption energies, and their sequence of occupation as a function of CO exposure was determined experimentally in C 1s HR-XPS spectra via their characteristic surface core-level shifts. On the clean, stepped (553) surface, molecular CO is adsorbed more strongly on low-coordinated top sites at the step edge, but on the Ni-decorated surface, the binding is stronger at the terrace sites. The barrier for dissociation with respect to the gas phase is about 1 eV lower on the stepped Rh(553) surface than on the flat Rh(111) surface, implying a substantially higher reaction rate. The presence of kinks at the clean Rh(553) surface does not lead to a significant additional decrease of the dissociation barriers, resulting in dissociation energies just above the desorption threshold for both stepped and kinked surfaces, whereas the barrier can be additionally lowered by about 0.1 eV by decorating the step edges with Ni stripes. Whereas no dissociation of CO was observed by HR-XPS on the clean Rh(553) surface, a minor amount of CO dissociation was found on the Ni-decorated Rh surface, in agreement with the theoretical predictions.
U2 - 10.1021/jp806424t
DO - 10.1021/jp806424t
M3 - Article
SN - 1932-7447
VL - 113
SP - 942
EP - 949
JO - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Part C (Nanomaterials and Interfaces)
JF - The Journal of Physical Chemistry Part C (Nanomaterials and Interfaces)
IS - 3
ER -