CO, CO2 and H2 adsorption on ZnO, CeO2, and ZnO/CeO2 surfaces: DFT simulations

Understanding the Reducibility of CeO2 Surfaces by Proton-Electron Transfer from CpCr(CO)3H

CeO2 is a popular material in heterogeneous catalysis, molecular sensors, and electronics and owes many of its special properties to the redox activity of Ce, present as both Ce3+ and Ce4+. However, the reduction of CeO2 with H2 (thought to occur through proton-electron transfer (PET) giving Ce3+ and new OH bonds) is poorly understood due to the high reduction temperatures necessary and the ill-defined nature of the hydrogen atom sources typically used. We have previously shown that transition-metal hydrides with weak M-H bonds react with reducible metal oxides at room temperature by PET. Here, we show that CpCr(CO)3H (1) transfers protons and electrons to CeO2 due to its weak Cr-H bond. We can titrate CeO2 with 1 and measure not only the number of surface Ce3+ sites formed (in agreement with X-ray absorption spectroscopy) but also the lower limit of the hydrogen atom adsorption free energy (HAFE). The results match the extent of reduction achieved from H2 treatment and hydrogen spillover on CeO2 in a wide range of applications.

Decoupling the Chemical and Mechanical Strain Effect on Steering the CO2 Activation over CeO2-Based Oxides: An Experimental and DFT Approach

Doped ceria-based metal oxides are widely used as supports and stand-alone catalysts in reactions where CO2 is involved. Thus, it is important to understand how to tailor their CO2 adsorption behavior. In this work, steering the CO2 activation behavior of Ce-La-Cu-O ternary oxide surfaces through the combined effect of chemical and mechanical strain was thoroughly examined using both experimental and ab initio modeling approaches. Doping with aliovalent metal cations (La3+ or La3+/Cu2+) and post-synthetic ball milling were considered as the origin of the chemical and mechanical strain of CeO2, respectively. Experimentally, microwave-assisted reflux-prepared Ce-La-Cu-O ternary oxides were imposed into mechanical forces to tune the structure, redox ability, defects, and CO2 surface adsorption properties; the latter were used as key descriptors. The purpose was to decouple the combined effect of the chemical strain (εC) and mechanical strain (εM) on the modification of the Ce-La-Cu-O surface reactivity toward CO2 activation. During the ab initio calculations, the stability (energy of formation, EOvf) of different configurations of oxygen vacant sites (Ov) was assessed under biaxial tensile strain (ε > 0) and compressive strain (ε < 0), whereas the CO2-philicity of the surface was assessed at different levels of the imposed mechanical strain. The EOvf values were found to decrease with increasing tensile strain. The Ce-La-Cu-O(111) surface exhibited the lowest EOvf values for the single subsurface sites, implying that Ov may occur spontaneously upon Cu addition. The mobility of the surface and bulk oxygen anions in the lattice contributing to the Ov population was measured using 16O/18O transient isothermal isotopic exchange experiments; the maximum in the dynamic rate of 16O18O formation, Rmax(16O18O), was 13.1 and 8.5 μmol g-1 s-1 for pristine (chemically strained) and dry ball-milled (chemically and mechanically strained) oxides, respectively. The CO2 activation pathway (redox vs associative) was experimentally probed using in situ diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy. It was demonstrated that the mechanical strain increased up to 6 times the CO2 adsorption sites, though reducing their thermal stability. This result supports the mechanical actuation of the "carbonate"-bound species; the latter was in agreement with the density functional theory (DFT)-calculated C-O bond lengths and O-C-O angles. Ab initio studies shed light on the CO2 adsorption energy (Eads), suggesting a covalent bonding which is enhanced in the presence of doping and under tensile strain. Bader charge analysis probed the adsorbate/surface charge distribution and illustrated that CO2 interacts with the dual sites (acidic and basic ones) on the surface, leading to the formation of bidentate carbonate species. Density of states (DOS) studies revealed a significant Eg drop in the presence of double Ov and compressive strain, a finding with design implications in covalent type of interactions. To bridge this study with industrially important catalytic applications, Ni-supported catalysts were prepared using pristine and ball-milled oxides and evaluated for the dry reforming of methane reaction. Ball milling was found to induce modification of the metal-support interface and Ni catalyst reducibility, thus leading to an increase in the CH4 and CO2 conversions. This study opens new possibilities to manipulate the CO2 activation for a portfolio of heterogeneous reactions.

CO2 adsorption on the pristine and reduced CeO2 (111) surface: Geometries and vibrational spectra by first principles simulations

First principles simulations of carbon dioxide adsorbed on the ceria (CeO₂) (111) surface are discussed in terms of structural features, stability, charge transfer, and vibrational modes. For this purpose, different density functional theory methods, such as Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (PBE) PBE and Hubbard correction, hybrid functionals, and different basis sets have been applied and compared. Both the stoichiometric and the reduced (111) surfaces are considered, where the electronic structure of the latter is obtained by introducing oxygen vacancies on the topmost or the subsurface oxygen layer. Both the potential energy surfaces of the reduced ceria surface and the adsorbate-surface complex are characterized by numerous local minima, of which the relative stability depends strongly on the electronic structure method of choice. Bent CO₂ configurations in close vicinity to the surface oxygen vacancy that partially re-oxidize the reduced ceria surface have been identified as the most probable stable minima. However, the oxygen vacancy concentration on the surface turns out to have a direct impact on the relative stability of possible adsorption configurations. Finally, the vibrational analyses of selected adsorbed species on both the stoichiometric and reduced surfaces show promising agreement with previous theoretical and experimental results.

Influence of sumanene modifications with boron and nitrogen atoms to its hydrogen adsorption properties

We investigate the influence of sumanene modifications on its adsorption properties towards the hydrogen molecule.

Initial reduction of CO2 on perfect and O-defective CeO2 (111) surfaces: towards CO or COOH?

CO₂ hydrogenation towards COOH is more favorable on perfect CeO₂ (111) surface, whereas reductive dissociation of CO₂ is predominant on O-defective surface. The O vacancy promotes reductive dissociation of CO₂ on O-defective CeO₂ (111) surface.