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High-entropy alloys (HEAs) represent near-equimolar points in the middle of a vast composition space of multi-metallic catalysts. Successful modeling of the catalytic activity of these complex materials allows to search this composition space for optimal catalysts. Previous models of HEA catalytic activity have been based on local and intricate descriptions of the atomic environment on the catalyst surface to predict accurate adsorption energies. These are subsequently used to model the catalytic activity. In this study, we show that by approximating the ligand effect of the surrounding atoms around an adsorption site with a mean-field perturbation corresponding to equimolar AgIrPdPtRu, the same trend in the predictions of the oxygen reduction reaction catalytic activities are obtained for a majority of the quinary Ag-Ir-Pd-Pt-Ru composition space. By comparing to models that consider the ligand effect locally, we show that the extent of such a mean-field approximation is valid up to and including equimolar ternary alloys, corresponding to 60.3 % of the quinary composition space. When extrapolating to make predictions far from near-equimolar compositions, such as for binary alloys, the mean field has been sufficiently perturbed to cause large discrepancies compared to the local models. Here, the intricate models thus prove more useful for discovering optimal catalysts.

Single-atom catalysts (SACs) have recently attracted broad scientific interests due to their unique structural feature, the single-atom dispersion. Optimized electronic structure as well as high stability are required for single-atom catalysts to enable efficient electrochemical production of H2O2. Herein, we report a facile synthesis method that stabilizes atomic Pd species on the reduced graphene oxide/N-doped carbon hollow carbon nanospheres (Pd1/N-C). Pd1/N-C exhibited remarkable electrochemical H2O2 production rate with high faradaic efficiency, reaching 80%. The single-atom structure and its high H2O2 production rate were maintained even after 10,000 cycle stability test. The existence of single-atom Pd as well as its coordination with N species is responsible for its high activity, selectivity, and stability. The N coordination number and substrate doping around Pd atoms are found to be critical for an optimized adsorption energy of intermediate *OOH, resulting in efficient electrochemical H2O2 production.

The electrocatalytic nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) under mild conditions is one of the most essential challenges in chemistry. Catalysts for electrochemical NRR play a crucial role in realizing this NH3 synthesis. In this work, we use density functional theory simulations to investigate the electrocatalytic NRR selectivity and activity on dual-atom catalysts, especially diporphyrins. We classify catalysts on the basis of the adsorption of ∗N2 versus ∗H. Our results demonstrate the possibility of diporphyrins to bind and reduce N2 without producing H2 at ambient conditions, promoting the high selectivity towards NH3 formation. This is due to a chelating adsorption of N2, where N2 sits between two metal atoms, enhancing the binding of ∗N2. Additionally, the chelating adsorption of N2 activates N-N bond breaking and provides more favourable scaling relations on the adsorption energies of key intermediates, leading to the enhanced NRR activity.

Cyclic voltammograms are key to much of the accumulated understanding of the nature of electrochemical interfaces; however, they provide no direct information on the atomic structure of the interfa...

Corrosion of copper is an expensive degradation process of materials in engineered infrastructures and in various technical applications. It is also an important factor in the geological disposal o...

Developing new efficient catalyst materials for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is essential for widespread proton exchange membrane water electrolyzer use. Both RuO2(110) and IrO2(110) have been shown to be highly active OER catalysts, however DFT predictions have been unable to explain the high activity of RuO2. We propose that this discrepancy is due to RuO2 utilizing a different reaction pathway, as compared to the conventional IrO2 pathway. This hypothesis is supported by comparisons between experimental data, DFT data and the proposed reaction model.

Understanding the reactivity of the cathode surface is of key importance to the development of batteries. Here, density functional theory is applied to investigate the oxidative decomposition of the electrolyte component, ethylene carbonate (EC), on layered LixMO2 oxide surfaces. We compare adsorption energy trends of atoms and small molecules, on both surface oxygen and metal sites, as a function of the Li content of the surface. The oxygen sites are identified as the reactive site for the electrolyte oxidation reaction (EOR). We report reaction energies and NEB-calculated kinetic barriers for the initial oxidative decomposition of EC, and correlate both with the reaction energy of hydrogen adsorption on oxygen. The hydrogen adsorption energy scales with the distance between the Fermi level and the O-2p band center. We expect this model of the EOR to be valid for other organic electrolytes and other Li metal oxide surfaces, due to its simplicity, and the model leads to simple design principles for protective coatings.

Achieving ultra-deep hydrodesulfurization means enabling removal of the last fractions of sulfur, contained in refractory molecules, from oil. Improving the state-of-the-art Co-promoted MoS2 (CoMoS) catalyst or the development of novel catalysts is crucial for this. Improving CoMoS requires more insight in the way sulfur containing molecules interact with it. Herein, we model the adsorption of sulfur containing molecules on the S-edge, M-edge, corner and basal plane of CoMoS using density functional theory. The obtained adsorption configurations and energies point to a preference towards physisorption at the S-edge and chemisorption in vacancies at the M-edge and corner. Smaller molecules, such as thiophene and methylthiol, were found to prefer vacancies when adsorbing while larger, sterically hindered molecules as 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene prefer physisorption on the brim of the edges or the basal plane through van der Waals interactions. Hydrogenation generally leads to a preference towards adsorption at vacancies for thiophene and dibenzothiophene while for 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene hydrogenation leads to preferential adsorption on the S-edge brim, possibly explaining why 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene does not get desulfurized directly but follows a hydrogenation route. Thiolate formation energies were also calculated for the different molecules and used to predict which sites are most likely to be involved in breaking carbon-sulfur bonds. The thiolate formation energies show the inert nature of the basal plane towards breaking carbon-sulfur and sulfur-hydrogen bonds. Additionally, activation energies for thiophene and dibenzothiophene carbon-sulfur bond scission indicate that both molecules follow the direct desulfurization route on under-coordinated sites or vacancies.

The electrochemical oxidation of methane to methanol at remote oil fields where methane is flared is the ultimate solution to harness this valuable energy resource. In this study we identify a fundamental surface catalytic limitation of this process in terms of a compromise between selectivity and activity, as oxygen evolution is a competing reaction. By investigating two classes of materials, rutile oxides and two-dimensional transition metal nitrides and carbides (MXenes), we find a linear relationship between the energy needed to activate methane, i.e. to break the first C-H bond, and oxygen binding energies on the surface. Based on a simple kinetic model we can conclude that in order to obtain sufficient activity oxygen has to bind weakly to the surface but there is an upper limit to retain selectivity. Few potentially interesting candidates are found but this relatively simple description enables future large scale screening studies for more optimal candidates.

Inert ion doping is a possible method to modify electrical conductivity and catalytic activity of transition-metal oxide electrocatalysts. Despite the importance of dopants, little is known about the underlying mechanisms for the change of the system properties. We have performed density functional theory calculations to investigate the influence of different valent ions on the O2 evolution reaction activity of β-MnO2 and Mn2O3. While Mn2O3 is unaffected by dopants, β-MnO2 is strongly affected by ions placed in a subsurface position. Doping does not affect the ion charge at the active site, but instead it effects the bond character. This is concluded through an analysis of the density overlap regions indicator and the density of states showing that the partially covalent nature of the bonds in β-MnO2 is responsible for the changes in the adsorbate binding energies. This mechanism is not active in the mostly ionic Mn2O3. These results highlight the need to explicitly consider the detailed bonding situation...

In this work we propose four non-coupled binding energies of intermediates as descriptors, or 'genes', for predicting the product distribution in CO2 electroreduction. Simple reactions can be understood by the Sabatier principle (catalytic activity vs. one descriptor), while more complex reactions tend to give multiple very different products and consequently the product selectivity is a more complex property to understand. We approach this, as a logistical classification problem, by grouping metals according to their major experimental product from CO2 electroreduction: H2, CO, formic acid and beyond CO* (hydrocarbons or alcohols). We compare the groups in terms of multiple binding energies of intermediates calculated by density functional theory. Here we find three descriptors to explain the grouping: the adsorption energies of H*, COOH* and CO*. To further classify products beyond CO*, we carry out formaldehyde experiments on Cu, Ag and Au and combine these results with the literature to group and differentiate alcohol or hydrocarbon products. We find that the oxygen binding (adsorption energy of CH3O*) is an additional descriptor to explain the alcohol formation in reduction processes. Finally, the adsorption energy of the four intermediates, H*, COOH*, CO* and CH3O*, can be used to differentiate, group and explain products in electrochemical reduction processes involving CO2, CO and carbon-oxygen compounds.

Herein we present surface sensitive operando XAS L-edge measurements on IrOx/RuO2 thin films as well as mass-selected RuOx and Ru nanoparticles. We observed shifts of the white line XAS peak toward higher energies with applied electrochemical potential. Apart from the case of the metallic Ru nanoparticles, the observed potential dependencies were purely core-level shifts caused by a change in oxidation state, which indicates no structural changes. These findings can be explained by different binding energies of oxygenated species on the surface of IrOx and RuOx. Simulated XAS spectra show that the average Ir oxidation state change is strongly affected by the coverage of atomic O. The observed shifts in oxidation state suggest that the surface has a high coverage of O at potentials just below the potential where oxygen evolution is exergonic in free energy. This observation is consistent with the notion that the metal-oxygen bond is stronger than ideal.

We have calculated the electrical conductivity of the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode contact material La1–xSrxCoO3−δ at 900 K. Experimental trends in conductivity against x, and against δ for fixed x, are correctly reproduced for x ≲ 0.8. Furthermore, we have studied the chemistry of neutral and charged intrinsic and extrinsic defects (dopants) in La0.5Sr0.5CoO3 and have calculated the conductivity of the doped systems. In particular, we find that doping with Sm on the La site should enhance the conductivity, a prediction that is subsequently confirmed by electrical conductivity measurements.

The paper compares photoelectrocatalytic activity and selectivity of nanocrystalline anatase dominated by {110}, {101}, and {001} faces in photo(electro)catalytic water splitting. Although the anodic half-reaction of water splitting—oxygen evolution—dominates the overall photoelectrochemical behavior of the photoexcited anatase, simultaneous reduction under photoelectrochemical conditions is also observed on some anatase faces. The activity of individual facets in anodic half-reaction of water splitting (oxygen evolution) increases in the order {101} < {110} < {001}. The increasing oxidation activity tracks the tendency of the surface to generate the OH• radical producing intermediates (H2O2, ozone) on the trapped hole states. The activity in reduction processes increases in the reversed order. Particularly, the reduction activity of the {101} oriented anatase can be attributed to pronounced hydrogen evolution by a charge transfer of photogenerated electrons. The observed trends agree with DFT-based model...

We present an atomic-scale model of the electrochemical interface, which unfolds the effects of pH and electrode potential using a generalized computational hydrogen electrode. The liquid structure of the solvent is included with the use of ab initio molecular dynamics to sample thousands of microstates with varying numbers of protons and electrons. The grand canonical probability weight function at constant pH and electrode potential is calculated a posteriori. The only inputs to the model are the fundamental assumptions of an equilibrated solvent, charge neutrality of the interface, and the dimensions of the system. The structures are unbiased outputs, and several atomic-scale quantities are calculated for our model system, water/Au(111), as weighted averages. We present the potentials of zero charge, Gibbs isotherms, and differential capacities as a function of pH. The potential of maximum entropy is also calculated, which to our knowledge has not previously been done with any first-principles method. ...

The low catalytic hydrodesulfurization (HDS) activity toward sterically hindered sulfur-containing molecules is a main industrial challenge in order to obtain ultra-low sulfur diesel. In this study we report a combined Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) investigation of the adsorption of the sterically hindered sulfur-containing molecule 4,6-dimethyldibenzothiophene (4,6-DMDBT) onto a hydrotreating model catalyst for the Co promoted MoS2 (CoMoS) phase. The molecular adsorption occurs exclusively on the Co-promoted S-edge, most predominantly in a precursor-like diffusive physisorption referred to as delocalized ππ-mode. 4,6-DMDBT adsorption directly in a S-edge sulfur vacancy is observed exclusively in S-edge corner vacancies in an adsorption configuration reflecting a σσ-coordination. STM movies reveal dynamic conversion between the σσ-mode and an on-top ππ-adsorption providing a link between different adsorption sites and hence between the hydrogenation and direct desulfurization pathways in HDS. The low overall direct desulfurization activity of 4,6-DMDBT and related molecules is consistent with the low occurrence of S-vacancies on CoMoS S-edges predicted under HDS conditions in this study.

A relation between hydrogen evolution and hydrodesulfurization catalysis has been found by den- sity functional theory calculations. The hydrogen evolution reaction and the hydrogenation reaction in hydrodesulfurization share hydrogen as surface intermediate, thus having a common elementary step which indicates that the same catalyst should perform well for both hydrogen evolution and hydro- genation. If that catalyst also fulfills additional criteria for breaking carbon-sulfur bonds and releasing hydrogen-sulfide, it will be a good hydrodesulfurization catalyst. The hydrogen evolution reaction is normally performed under room temperature and standard pressure while the hydrodesulfurization reaction is driven by high temperature and pressure. Due to the very different operating conditions the adsorption free energy of hydrogen differs between hydrodesulfurization and the hydrogen evolution reaction which makes the connection between the two less obvious.

The structure of an electrochemical interface is not determined by any external electrostatic field, but rather by external chemical potentials. This paper demonstrates that the electric double layer should be understood fundamentally as an internal electric field set up by the atomic structure to satisfy the thermodynamic constraints imposed by the environment. This is captured by the generalized computational hydrogen electrode model, which enables us to make efficient first-principles calculations of atomic scale properties of the electrochemical interface.

The high precious metal loading and high overpotential of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) prevents the widespread utilization of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) water electrolyzers. Herein we explore the OER activity and stability in acidic electrolyte of a combined IrOx/RuO2 system consisting of RuO2 thin films with sub-monolayer (1, 2 and 4 Å) amounts of IrOx deposited on top. Operando extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) on the Ir L-3 edge revealed a rutile type IrO2 structure with some Ir sites occupied by Ru, IrOx being at the surface of the RuO2 thin film. We monitor corrosion on IrOx/RuO2 thin films by combining electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) with inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). We elucidate the importance of sub-monolayer surface IrOx in minimizing Ru dissolution. Our work shows that we can tune the surface properties of active OER catalysts such as RuO2, aiming to achieve higher electrocatalytic stability in PEM electrolyzers.

There are known errors in oxidation energies of transition metal oxides caused by an improper treatment of their d-electrons. The Hubbard U is the computationally cheapest addition one can use to capture correct reaction energies, but the specific Hubbard U oftentimes must be empirically determined only when suitable experimental data exist. We evaluated the effect of adding a calculated, linear response U on the predicted adsorption energies, scaling relationships, and activity trends with respect to the oxygen evolution reaction for a set of transition metal dioxides. We find that applying a U greater than zero always causes adsorption energies to be more endothermic. Furthermore, the addition of the Hubbard U greater than zero does not break scaling relationships established without the Hubbard U. The addition of the calculated linear response U value produces shifts of different systems along the activity volcano that results in improved activity trends when compared with experimental results.

Electrochemical production of hydrogen, facilitated in electrolyzers, holds great promise for energy storage and solar fuel production. A bottleneck in the process is the catalysis of the oxygen evolution reaction, involving the transfer of four electrons. The challenge is that the binding energies of all reaction intermediates cannot be optimized individually. However, experimental investigations have shown that drastic improvements can be realized for manganese and cobalt-based oxides if gold is added to the surface or used as substrate. We propose an explanation for these enhancements based on a hydrogen acceptor concept. This concept comprises a stabilization of an *OOH intermediate, which effectively lowers the potential needed for breaking bonds to the surface. On this basis, we investigate the interactions between the oxides and gold by using DFT calculations. The results suggest that the oxygen evolution reaction overpotential decreases by 100–300 mV for manganese oxides and 100 mV for cobalt oxides.

We present atomic-scale structures of the Pt(111)/water interface, by calculating distributions of atomic distances as functions of pH. The structure of the Pt(111)/water interface is a particularly interesting model system in electro-catalysis for proton exchange reactions, especially the oxygen reduction reaction in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Further insight into such reactions requires accurate simulations of the electrolyte structure in the interface. The study displays many interesting details in the behaviour of the electrolyte structure, e.g. that the electrolyte structure average responds to the presence of protons by a H-down water orientation and that hexagonal adsorbed water layers are present only when they are anchored at the surface by HO*. New adsorbate configurations were also found at 5/12 ML coverage of HO*, suggesting an explanation for reported cyclic voltammetry experiments. The present study is a step towards a more complete understanding of the structure of the electrochemical interface on the atomic scale.

Understanding the interaction between adsorbants and metal surfaces has led to descriptors for bindings and catalysis which have a major impact on the design of metal catalysts. On semiconductor oxides, these understandings are still lacking. We show an important elementin understanding binding on semiconductors. We propose here a correlation between the cooperative interaction energy, i.e., the energy difference between the adsorption energies of coadsorbed electron donor–acceptor pair and isolated fragments and the band gap of the clean oxide surface. We demonstrate this effect for a number of oxides and donor–acceptor pairs and explain it with the shift in the Fermi level before and after the adsorption. The conclusion is that the adsorption of acceptor–donor pairs is considerably more favorable compared to unpaired fragments,and this energy difference is approximately equal to the value of the band gap. The implications of this understanding in relation to the improvement and discovery of novel catalysts on the band gap oxides are also discussed.

In this work, we examine the thermochemistry of methanol synthesis intermediates using density functional theory (DFT) and analyze the methanol synthesis reaction network using a steady-state micro-kinetic model. The energetics for methanol synthesis over Zn-terminated ZnO (0 0 0 1) are obtained from DFT calculations using the RPBE and BEEF-vdW functionals. The energies obtained from the two functionals are compared and it is determined that the BEEF-vdW functional is more appropriate for the reaction. The BEEF-vdW energetics are used to construct surface phase diagrams as a function of CO, H 2 O, and H 2 chemical potentials. The computed binding energies along with activation barriers from literature are used as inputs for a mean-field micro-kinetic model for methanol synthesis including the CO and CO 2 hydrogenation routes and the water–gas shift reaction. The kinetic model is used to investigate the methanol synthesis rate as a function of temperature and pressure. The results show qualitative agreement with experiment and yield information on the optimal working conditions of ZnO catalysts.

Porphyrin-like metal-functionalized graphene structures have been investigated as possible catalysts for CO2 and CO reduction to methane or methanol. The late transition metals (Cu, Ag, Au, Ni, Pd, Pt, Co, Rh, Ir, Fe, Ru, Os) and some p (B, Al, Ga) and s (Mg) metals comprised the center of the porphyrin ring. A clear difference in catalytic properties compared to extended metal surfaces was observed owing to a different electronic nature of the active site. The preference to bind hydrogen, however, becomes a major obstacle in the reaction path. A possible solution to this problem is to reduce CO instead of CO2. Volcano plots were constructed on the basis of scaling relations of reaction intermediates, and from these plots the reaction steps with the highest overpotentials were deduced. The Rh–porphyrin-like functionalized graphene was identified as the most active catalyst for producing methanol from CO, featuring an overpotential of 0.22 V. Additionally, we have also examined the hydrogen evolution and o...

Alignment of metal and molecular electronic energy levels at electrode–electrolyte interfaces is investigated using density functional theory. Three different regimes exhibiting qualitatively different energy level alignments are observed. The regimes are roughly defined by the size of the metal work function relative to the ionization potential and/or electron affinity of the electrolyte. It is demonstrated that proper matching of these quantities is essential for successful ab initio modeling of electrochemical interfaces and it is further discussed how such matching can be obtained by careful tailoring of the interfacial atomic structure.

In this paper, we explore the notion that a negative alloying energy may act as a descriptor for long term stability of Pt-alloys as cathode catalysts in low temperature fuel cells. Using density functional theory calculations, we show that there is a correlation between the alloying energy of an alloy, and the diffusion barriers of the minority component. Alloys with a negative alloying energy may show improved long term stability, despite the fact that there is typically a greater thermodynamic driving force towards dissolution of the solute metal over alloying. In addition to Pt, we find that this trend also appears to hold for alloys based on Al and Pd.

Two surface alloys with p(3 × 1) and p(6 × 1) periodicity have been identified after the deposition of metallic Sn on the (1 × 2)-Pt(110) surface. These two structures have been characterized by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and photoemission spectroscopy. Based on the experimental results and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, we propose atomic models for these surface alloys, which both consist of a highly corrugated row structure with a very similar surface motif. CO temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) experiments indicate that CO desorbs from the PtSnx surfaces at about 415–425 K compared to 495 K on the clean Pt(110). The energetics and geometry of the CO chemisorption sites have been studied by DFT calculations, obtaining an adsorption energy of 0.7–0.86 eV on p(3 × 1) and 0.9–1.05 eV on p(6 × 1). Overall our theoretical and experimental results indicate that the introduction of Sn strongly reduces the CO adsorption energy on the (110) or...

We investigate the heterogeneously catalysed oxidation of HX (X=Cl, Br and I) on the RuO2 (1 1 0) surface with DFT. We also solve a micro-kinetic model of HX oxidation and compare oxidation activity at different coverages. We further establish linear energy relations for the reaction intermediates over a range of different rutile oxide surfaces. Based on the scaling relations, two descriptors are identified that describe the reactions uniquely. By combining scaling with the micro-kinetic model, activity volcanoes for the three different oxidation reactions are derived. It is found that the commonly used RuO2 catalyst for HCl oxidation is closest to optimal for all three oxidation processes.

Direct methanol fuel cells are a key enabling technology for clean energy conversion. Using density functional theory calculations, we study the methanol oxidation reaction on model electrodes. We discuss trends in reactivity for a set of monometallic and bimetallic transition metal surfaces, flat and stepped, which includes platinum-based alloys with ruthenium, tin, and copper, as well as nonprecious alloys, overlayer structures, and modified edges. A common lower bound on the overpotential is estimated (ca. 0.3 V). A model for bifunctional alloys is employed to investigate the nature of the active sites on the surface and to screen for novel bimetallic surfaces of enhanced activity. We suggest platinum copper surfaces as promising anode catalysts for direct methanol fuel cells.

Cyclic voltammetry is a fundamental experimental method for characterizing adsorbates on electrochemical surfaces. We present a model for the electrochemical solid–liquid interface, and we simulate the linear sweep voltammogram of the electrochemical oxidation of H2O on Pt(111) and Pt3Ni(111), based on kinetic and thermodynamic parameters computed by Density Functional Theory (DFT) and the dynamics of the system solved through Monte Carlo-based methods. The model predicts onset of OH and O formation in good agreement with voltammetric and ex situ XPS experiments.

We investigated the activity and stability of n=(1, 2, 3) platinum layers supported on a number of rutile metal oxides (MO2; M=Ti, Sn, Ta, Nb, Hf and Zr). A suitable oxide support can alleviate the problem of carbon corrosion and platinum dissolution in Pt/C catalysts. Moreover, it can increase the activity of platinum if the interaction between the support and the metal is optimal. We found that both the activity and the stability depend on the number of platinum layers and, as expected, both converge toward platinum bulk values if the number of layers is increased. With use of a simple volcano curve for activity estimation, we found that the supported platinum layers could be active for the oxygen reduction reaction, with a few candidates possibly having an activity even greater than that of platinum. Furthermore, we established a correlation between stability and activity for supported platinum monolayers, which suggests that activity can be increased at the expense of stability and vice versa. Finally, the performance of the systems was evaluated against Pt(111) skins on Pt3X (X=Ni, Co, Fe, Ti, Sc and Y) alloys, which are the best catalysts known to date for the reaction.

An overview of a collaborative experimental and theoretical effort toward efficient hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical splitting of water into di-hydrogen and di-oxygen is presented here. We present state-of-the-art experimental studies using hematite and TiO2 functionalized with gold nanoparticles as photoanode materials, and theoretical studies on electro and photo-catalysis of water on a range of metal oxide semiconductor materials, including recently developed implementation of self-interaction corrected energy functionals., We thank the EU for financial support of the Marie Curie Research Training Network ‘‘Hydrogen’’ (Contract No. MRTNCT-2006-032474). In addition, economic support from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (Project Number 102326, PECHouse), the Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research (Mistra, Dnr 2004-118), the Icelandic Research Foundation, the Danish Center for scientific computing, the Center for Atomic Scale Material Design, the Catalysis for Sustainable Energy (CASE) initiative, the Danish Strategic Research Council’s HyCycle program, and the Danish Council for Technology and Innovation’s FTP program is also acknowledged.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on the rutile MTiO2(110) (M=V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, Mn, Fe, Ru, Ir, Ni) surfaces was investigated by using density functional theory calculations. The stability of different doped TiO2 systems was analyzed. The scaling relationship between the binding energies of OER intermediates (HOO* versus HO*) is found to follow essentially the same trend as for undoped oxides. Our theoretical analysis shows a lower overpotential associated with OER on the doped MTiO2(110) than on the undoped TiO2(110). The theoretical activity of Cr-, Mo-, Mn-, and Ir-doped TiO2 is found to be close to that of RuO2(110) for some of the configurations in consideration.

We study electronic hole localization in rutile and anatase titanium dioxide by means of Δ-Self-Consistent Field Density Functional Theory. In order to compare stabilities of the localized and the delocalized hole states we introduce a simple correction to the wrong description of the localization processes within DFT. The correction removes the non-linearity of energy for fractional excitations. We show that the self-trapped and the delocalized hole states have comparable stability in rutile TiO 2 whereas in anatase the former is favoured. The theoretical prediction of the adiabatic Potential Energy Surfaces for the hole localization compares well with published photoluminescence measurements.

Trends in electrocatalytic activity of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are investigated on the basis of a large database of HO* and HOO* adsorption energies on oxide surfaces. The theoretical overpotential was calculated by applying standard density functional theory in combination with the computational standard hydrogen electrode (SHE) model. We showed that by the discovery of a universal scaling relation between the adsorption energies of HOO* vs HO*, it is possible to analyze the reaction free energy diagrams of all the oxides in a general way. This gave rise to an activity volcano that was the same for a wide variety of oxide catalyst materials and a universal descriptor for the oxygen evolution activity, which suggests a fundamental limitation on the maximum oxygen evolution activity of planar oxide catalysts.

We establish an activity relation for the heterogeneous catalytic oxidation of HCl (the Deacon Process) over rutile transition-metal oxide catalysts by combining density functional theory calculations (DFT) with microkinetic modeling. Linear energy relations for the elementary reaction steps are obtained from the DFT calculations and used to establish a one-dimensional descriptor for the catalytic activity. The descriptor employed here is the dissociative chemisorption energy of oxygen. It is found that the commonly employed RuO 2 catalyst is close to optimal, but that there could still be room for improvements. The analysis suggests that oxide surfaces which offer slightly weaker bonding of oxygen should exhibit a superior activity to that of Ru0 2 .

Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations we study the electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction on rutile (110) oxide surfaces. First we construct the Pourbaix surface diagram for IrO(2) and RuO(2), and from this we find the chlorine evolution reaction intermediates and identify the lowest overpotential at which all elementary reaction steps in the chlorine evolution reaction are downhill in free energy. This condition is then used as a measure for catalytic activity. Linear scaling relations between the binding energies of the intermediates and the oxygen binding energies at cus-sites are established for MO(2) (M being Ir, Ru, Pt, Ti). The linear relations form the basis for constructing a generalized surface phase diagram where two parameters, the potential and the binding energy of oxygen, are needed to determine the surface composition. We calculate the catalytic activity as function of the oxygen binding energy, giving rise to a Sabatier volcano. By combining the surface phase diagram and the volcano describing the catalytic activity, we find that the reaction mechanism differs depending on catalyst material. The flexibility in reaction path means that the chlorine evolution activity is high for a wide range of oxygen binding energies. We find that the required overpotential for chlorine evolution is lower than the overpotential necessary for oxygen evolution.

A detailed atomistic model based on density functional theory calculations is presented of the charged solid–electrolyte interface. Having protons solvated in a water bilayer outside a Pt(1 1 1) slab with excess electrons, we show how the interface capacitance is well described and how the work function can be related directly to the potential scale of the normal hydrogen electrode. We also show how finite-size effects in common periodic slab-type calculations can be avoided in calculations of activation energies and reaction energies for charge transfer reactions, where we use the Heyrovsky reaction for hydrogen oxidation over a Pt(1 1 1) electrode as an example. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. An understanding of the structure and dynamics of the interface between a solid and an electrolyte is a prerequisite to a molecularlevel understanding of many adsorption phenomena and of electrochemical processes. Modelling the solid–electrolyte interface is extremely demanding. One needs to describe the solid surface, the liquid, the ions solvated in the liquid and the charge-transfer taking place at the interface during electrochemical reaction. In addition one needs to be able to describe the effect of varying the electrical potential of the electrode. While models of the interface have been formulated for decades [1–5] the methods of density functional theory (DFT), which have been very important for the present understanding of the gas–solid interface, have only been applied recently [6–20] and still in a quite approximate way. In the present Letter we propose a method for calculating the energetics of interface reactions on the basis of standard DFT slab calculations and show that the method gives values for the interface capacitance in agreement with experiments and provide a measure of the vacuum potential relative to the normal hydrogen electrode (NHE). Consider a metal electrode in contact with water with ions dissolved. Since the electrolyte is conducting the interface region must be charge neutral and the charge on the solid surface will be counteracted by an opposite charge built up by ions just outside the surface. This interface region, the Helmholtz layer, is often approximated by a ca. 3 A thick electrical double layer [21]. The double layer has a strong electrical field, which is central to the properties of the interface. The strength of the field is given by the charge, which in turn is determined by the chemical potential of the electrons. The potential is measured relative to a counter electrode which is also immersed in the electrolyte. Because there is no electrical field in the electrolyte, the electrode and the counter electrode can be considered independent of each other and can be studied separately. However, with an electrochemical reaction running, the system is out of equilibrium. Locally at the interface charge is consumed or produced, which gives rise to a small field driving the charge to or from the interface. Fig. 1 shows the main components of an atomistic model of a metal–electrolyte interface. It is possible to carry out DFT calculations for such a system using slab calculations to model the surface [19], but the calculations are hampered by the fact that for realistic electrode potentials the charge on the surface is small, often considerably less than one electron charge per 10 surface atoms. Unit cells with a large surface area are therefore needed. An even more severe problem is that if a charge transfer reaction takes place – say a proton is transferred to the surface – and the unit cell area is small, the potential changes significantly during the reaction. This finite-size effect can severely affect the results. Recent developments have made important steps towards a method that can treat the electrified solid–liquid interface. Filhol and Neurock have performed calculations where they charge the surface by adding or subtracting electrons from the slab modelling the metal electrode [17]. This means that a homogenous background charge of the opposite sign is introduced implicitly to make the system neutral. The advantage of this method is that a fraction of an electron can be introduced, and the charge can be varied continuously. Large area unit cells can therefore be avoided. The drawback is that the counter-ions are now not in the water layer just outside the electrode surface but spread out everywhere in space. The field just outside the surface is, therefore, too small [22]. Otani and Sugino [18] and Sugino et al. [20] have introduced the possibility of charging the surface and placing the counter charge in a layer beyond the water, ca. 15–20 A from the electrode. Again the charge can be varied continuously and due to the polarization of the water between the counter charge and the surface, most of the potential drop happens correctly just outside the surface. The drawback is that again the counter charge is placed far from the electrode and the polarization of the water may therefore not be entirely

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the steam reforming process from first-principles calculations, supported by insight from experimental investigations. In the present work we employ recently recognised scaling relationships for adsorption energies of simple molecules adsorbed at pure metal surfaces to develop an overview of the steam reforming process catalyzed by a range of transition metal surfaces. By combining scaling relationships with thermodynamic and kinetic analysis, we show that it is possible to determine the reactivity trends of the pure metals for methane steam reforming. The reaction is found to be kinetically controlled by a methane dissociation step and a CO formation step, where the latter step is found to be dominant at lower temperatures. The particle size of the metal catalysts particles have been determined by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and the turn over frequency observed to be linearly dependent on the dispersion, supporting the theoretical notion that the active sites are most likely present as one dimensional edges. It has been found that determination of the correct particle size distribution of small (2–4 nm) Ru particles requires in situ TEM measurements under a hydrogen atmosphere. The overall agreement between theory and experiment (at 773 K, 1 bar pressure and 10% conversion) is found to be excellent with Ru and Rh being the most active pure transition metals for methane steam reforming, while Ni, Ir, Pt, and Pd are significantly less active at similar dispersion.

The oxidation and photo-oxidation of water on the rutile TiO2(110) surface is investigated using density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We investigate the relative stability of different surface terminations of TiO2 interacting with H2O and analyze the overpotential needed for the electrolysis and photoelectrolysis of water. We found that the most difficult step in the splitting of water process is the reaction of a H2O molecule with a vacancy in the surface to form an adsorbed hydroxyl group (OH*). Comparison to experiment shows that the computed overpotential for O2 evolution (0.78 V) is available under the experimental conditions required for both oxygen and hydrogen evolution.

A simple, first principles-based model of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is used to determine ORR kinetics on the (111), (100), and (211) facets of eleven transition metals (Au, Ag, Pt, Pd, Ir, Cu, Rh, Ni, Ru, Co, Fe). For most metals, the unreconstructed (100) facets are found to have an activity comparable to, or slightly higher than, the (111) facets. In contrast, (211) steps are found to be significantly less active than the terraces, with the exception of the most noble metals. These results are combined with simple models of the geometries of catalytic nanoparticles to estimate the average ORR activity of Pt and Au nanoparticles of various sizes. On Pt, a modest decrease in the activity with decreasing particle size is predicted, while for Au, the opposite trend is found.

Further advances in fuel cell technologies are hampered by kinetic limitations associated with the sluggish cathodic oxygen reduction reaction. We have investigated a range of different formulations of binary and ternary Pt, Pd and Au thin films as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction. The most active binary thin films are near-surface alloys of Pt with subsurface Pd and certain PdAu and PtAu thin films with surface and/or subsurface Au. The most active ternary thin films are with pure metal Pt or Pd skins with some degree of Au in the surface and/or subsurface layer and the near-surface alloys of Au with mixed Pt–Pd skins. The activity of the binary and ternary catalysts is explained through weakening of the OH binding energy caused by solute elements. However, given the low alloy formation energies it may be difficult to tune and retain the composition under operating conditions. This is particularly challenging for alloys containing Au due to a high propensity of Au to segregate to the surface. We also show that once Au is on the surface it will diffuse to defect sites, explaining why small amounts of Au retard dissolution of Pt nanoparticles. For the PtPd thin films there is no pronounced driving force for surface segregation, diffusion to defects or surface self-assembling. On the basis of stability and activity analysis we conclude that the near surface alloy of Pd in Pt and some PdAu binary and PtPdAu ternary thin films with a controlled amount of Au are the best catalysts for oxygen reduction.

Density functional theory calculations are used as the basis for an analysis of the electrochemical process, where by water is split to form molecular oxygen and hydrogen. We develop a method for obtaining the thermochemistry of the electrochemical water splitting process as a function of the bias directly from the electronic structure calculations. We consider electrodes of Pt(1 1 1) and Au(1 1 1) in detail and then discuss trends for a series of different metals. We show that the difficult step in the water splitting process is the formation of superoxy-type (OOH) species on the surface by the splitting of a water molecule on top an adsorbed oxygen atom. One conclusion is that this is only possible on metal surfaces that are (partly) oxidized. We show that the binding energies of the different intermediates are linearly correlated for a number of metals. In a simple analysis, where the linear relations are assumed to be obeyed exactly, this leads to a universal relationship between the catalytic rate and the oxygen binding energy. Finally, we conclude that for systems obeying these relations, there is a limit to how good a water splitting catalyst an oxidized metal surface can become.

We present a method for calculating the stability of reaction intermediates of electrochemical processes on the basis of electronic structure calculations. We used that method in combination with detailed density functional calculations to develop a detailed description of the free-energy landscape of the electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction over Pt(111) as a function of applied bias. This allowed us to identify the origin of the overpotential found for this reaction. Adsorbed oxygen and hydroxyl are found to be very stable intermediates at potentials close to equilibrium, and the calculated rate constant for the activated proton/electron transfer to adsorbed oxygen or hydroxyl can account quantitatively for the observed kinetics. On the basis of a database of calculated oxygen and hydroxyl adsorption energies, the trends in the oxygen reduction rate for a large number of different transition and noble metals can be accounted for. Alternative reaction mechanisms involving proton/electron transfer to ...

Sulphur dioxide (SO2), a known industrial pollutant and pulmonary irritant, is emitted to the atmosphere in excess of 120 Mt per annum. Great strides have been taken to reduce SO2 emissions, but with the growth of specifically China, and to a lesser extent India, it is on the rise again. The electrolysis of aqueous solutions of dissolved SO2 holds huge environmental potential in that SO2 is converted to sulphuric acid (H2SO4) and at the same time hydrogen gas is produced. A further benefit or incentive is that a sulphur depolarised electrolyser (SDE) operates at an applied potential that is about one volt lower than that of a regular water electrolyser. In taking this technology forward the greatest improvement to be made is in developing a suitable electrocatalyst, which is also the 'lowest hanging fruit' in that very limited research and development has been conducted on the electrocatalyst for this process. In this work, density functional theory is employed to model the electro-oxidation of SO2 on single crystal planes of the 4d and 5d transition metals. Two reaction mechanisms are considered, a HSO3 intermediate pathway and a SO3 intermediate pathway. The binding energies of all intermediates are found to scale with the surface reactivity (measured as the adsorption of OH). Irrespective of the pathway water needs to be activated and reduction of SO2 to elemental sulphur must be avoided. This requirement alone calls for an electrode potential of at least 0.7-0.8 V for all the investigated transition metals and thus challenges the proclaimed goal to operate the SDE at 0.6 V. A high chemical barrier is further found to severely limit the oxidation reaction on reactive metals. A much higher catalytic activity can be obtained on precious metals but at the cost of running the reaction at high overpotentials.

Oxygen evolution catalysis is restricted by the interdependence of adsorption energies of the reaction intermediates and the surface reactivity. The interdependence reduces the number of degrees of freedom available for catalyst optimization. Here it is demonstrated that this limitation can be removed by active site modification. This can be achieved on ruthenia by incorporation of Ni or Co into the surface, which activates a proton donor-acceptor functionality on the conventionally inactive bridge surface sites. This enhances the actual measured oxygen evolution activity of the catalyst significantly compared to conventional ruthenia.