Adsorption and dissociation of O-2 on the Cu2O(1 1 1) surface: Thermochemistry, reaction barrier

作者:Zhang Riguang; Liu Hongyan; Zheng Huayan; Ling Lixia; Li Zhong; Wang Baojun*
来源:Applied Surface Science, 2011, 257(11): 4787-4794.
DOI:10.1016/j.apsusc.2010.12.040

摘要

The adsorption and dissociation of O-2 on the perfect and oxygen-deficient Cu2O(1 1 1) surface have been systematically studied using periodic density functional calculations. Different kinds of possible modes of atomic O and molecular O-2 adsorbed on the Cu2O(1 1 1) surface are identified: atomic O is found to prefer threefold 3Cu site on the perfect surface and O-vacancy site on the deficient surface, respectively. Cu-CUS is the most advantageous site with molecularly adsorbed O-2 lying flatly over singly coordinate Cu-CUS-Cu-CSA bridge on the perfect surface. O-2 adsorbed dissociatively on the deficient surface, which is the main dissociation pathway of O2, and a small quantity of molecularly adsorbed O-2 has been obtained. Further, possible dissociation pathways of molecularly adsorbed O-2 on the Cu2O(1 1 1) surface are explored, the reaction energies and relevant barriers show that a small quantity of molecularly adsorbed O-2 dissociation into two O atoms on the deficient surface is favorable both thermodynamically and kinetically in comparison with the dissociation of O-2 on the perfect surface. The calculated results suggest that the presence of oxygen vacancy exhibits a strong chemical reactivity towards the dissociation of O-2 and can obviously improve the catalytic activity of Cu2O, which is in agreement with the experimental observation.