Electronic Structure of Unsaturated V2O5(001) and (100) Surfaces: Ab Initio Density Functional Theory Studies

A transferable prediction model of molecular adsorption on metals based on adsorbate and substrate properties

Surface adsorption is one of the fundamental processes in numerous fields, including catalysis, the environment, energy and medicine. The development of an adsorption model which provides an effective prediction of binding energy in minutes has been a long term goal in surface and interface science. The solution has been elusive as identifying the intrinsic determinants of the adsorption energy for various compositions, structures and environments is non-trivial. We introduce a new and flexible model for predicting adsorption energies to metal substrates. The model is based on easily computed, intrinsic properties of the substrate and adsorbate, which are the same for all the considered systems. It is parameterised using machine learning based on first-principles calculations of probe molecules (e.g., H₂O, CO₂, O₂, N₂) adsorbed to a range of pure metal substrates. The model predicts the computed dissociative adsorption energy to metal surfaces with a correlation coefficient of 0.93 and a mean absolute error of 0.77 eV for the large database of molecular adsorption energies provided by Catalysis-Hub.org which have a range of 15 eV. As the model is based on pre-computed quantities it provides near-instantaneous estimates of adsorption energies and it is sufficiently accurate to eliminate around 90% of candidates in screening study of new adsorbates. The model, therefore, significantly enhances current efforts to identify new molecular coatings in many applied research fields.

Elementary steps of the catalytic NO(x) reduction with NH3: cluster studies on reactant adsorption at vanadium oxide substrate

Extended cluster models together with density-functional theory are used to evaluate geometric, energetic, and electronic properties of different adsorbate species that can occur at a vanadium oxide surface where the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) of NO in the presence of ammonia proceeds. Here, we focus on atomic hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, as well as molecular NO and NHx, x = 1, 4, adsorption at a model V2O5(010) surface. Binding sites, oxygen and vanadium, at both the perfect and reduced surface are considered where reduction is modeled by (sub-) surface oxygen vacancies. The reactants are found to bind overall more strongly at oxygen vacancy sites of the reduced surface where they stabilize in positions formerly occupied by the oxygen (substitutional adsorption) compared with weaker binding at the perfect surface. In particular, ammonia, which interacts only weakly with vanadium at the perfect surface, binds quite strongly near surface oxygen vacancies. In contrast, surface binding of the NH4 adsorbate species differs only little between the perfect and the reduced surface which is explained by the dominantly electrostatic nature of the adsorbate interaction. The theoretical results are consistent with experimental findings and confirm the importance of surface reduction for the reactant adsorption forming elementary steps of the SCR process.

Ammonium adsorption on Brønsted acidic centers on low-index vanadium pentoxide surfaces

Vanadium-based catalysts are used in many technological processes, among which the removal of nitrogen oxides (NO_x) from waste gases is one of the most important. The chemical reaction responsible for this selective catalytic reaction (SCR) is based on the reduction of NO_x molecules to N₂, and a possible reductant in this case is pre-adsorbed NH₃. In this paper, NH₃ adsorption on Brønsted OH acid centers on low-index surfaces of V₂O₅ (010, 100, 001) is studied using a theoretical DFT method with a gradient-corrected functional (RPBE) in the embedded cluster approximation model. The results of the calculations show that ammonia molecules are spontaneously stabilized on all low-index surfaces of the investigated catalyst, with adsorption energies ranging from −0.34 to −2 eV. Two different mechanisms of ammonia adsorption occur: the predominant mechanism involves the transfer of a proton from a surface OH group and the stabilization of ammonia as an NH₄⁺ cation bonded to surface O atom(s), while an alternative mechanism involves the hydrogen bonding of NH₃ to a surface OH moiety. The latter binding mode is present only in cases of stabilization over a doubly coordinated O(2) center at a (100) surface. The results of the calculations indicate that a nondirectional local electrostatic interaction with ammonia approaching a surface predetermines the mode of stabilization, whereas hydrogen-bonding interactions are the main force stabilizing the adsorbed ammonia. Utilizing the geometric features of the hydrogen bonds, the overall strength of these interactions was quantified and qualitatively correlated (R = 0.93) with the magnitude of the stabilization effect (i.e., the adsorption energy).

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Alkali metal poisoning of a CeO2-WO3 catalyst used in the selective catalytic reduction of NOx with NH3: an experimental and theoretical study

The alkali metal-induced deactivation of a novel CeO(2)-WO(3) (CeW) catalyst used for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) was investigated. The CeW catalyst could resist greater amounts of alkali metals than V(2)O(5)-WO(3)/TiO(2). At the same molar concentration, the K-poisoned catalyst exhibited a greater loss in activity compared with the Na-poisoned catalyst below 200 °C. A combination of experimental and theoretical methods, including NH(3)-TPD, DRIFTS, H(2)-TPR, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations, were used to elucidate the mechanism of the alkali metal deactivation of the CeW catalyst in SCR reaction. Experiments results indicated that decreases in the reduction activity and the quantity of Brønsted acid sites rather than the acid strength were responsible for the catalyst deactivation. The DFT calculations revealed that Na and K could easily adsorb on the CeW (110) surface and that the surface oxygen could migrate to cover the active tungsten, and then inhibit the SCR of NO(x) with ammonia. Hot water washing is a convenient and effective method to regenerate alkali metal-poisoned CeW catalysts, and the catalytic activity could be recovered 90% of the fresh catalyst.

Modelling catalyst surfaces using DFT cluster calculations

We review our recent theoretical DFT cluster studies of a variety of industrially relevant catalysts such as TiO₂, γ-Al₂O₃, V₂O₅-WO₃-TiO₂ and Ni/Al₂O₃. Aspects of the metal oxide surface structure and the stability and structure of metal clusters on the support are discussed as well as the reactivity of surfaces, including their behaviour upon poisoning. It is exemplarily demonstrated how such theoretical considerations can be combined with DRIFT and XPS results from experimental studies.