Isomers and electronic states of Ni2O2H2 and evaluation of the effect of charge on the electronic properties and reactivity of Ni2O2

Metal Cluster Models for Heterogeneous Catalysis: A Matrix-Isolation Perspective

Metal cluster models are of high relevance for establishing new mechanistic concepts for heterogeneous catalysis. The high reactivity and particular selectivity of metal clusters is caused by the wealth of low-lying electronically excited states that are often thermally populated. Thereby the metal clusters are flexible with regard to their electronic structure and can adjust their states to be appropriate for the reaction with a particular substrate. The matrix isolation technique is ideally suited for studying excited state reactivity. The low matrix temperatures (generally 4-40 K) of the noble gas matrix host guarantee that all clusters are in their electronic ground-state (with only a very few exceptions). Electronically excited states can then be selectively populated and their reactivity probed. Unfortunately, a systematic research in this direction has not been made up to date. The purpose of this review is to provide the grounds for a directed approach to understand cluster reactivity through matrix-isolation studies combined with quantum chemical calculations.

Methane activation on nickel oxide clusters with a concerted mechanism: a density functional theory study of the effect of silica support

The support effect is an important issue in heterogeneous catalysis. A systematic density functional theory (DFT) study was performed to investigate the support effect of a silica model on the initial step of methane activation on NixOx (x =2,3) clusters with a concerted mechanism. Four reactions were examined by exploring their potential energy surfaces (PES): CH4 reacting with unsupported Ni2O2, with silica-supported Ni2O2, with unsupported Ni3O3, and with silica-supported Ni3O3. For each reaction, PES with different spin states were explored. For CH4 activation taking place via a concerted mechanism, the reaction barriers in terms of free energy and reaction free energy increased with the involvement of the model silica support. Only one PES made a major contribution to the overall reaction rate of all four reactions examined. No spin transition process was required for the reactions to undergo their most-favorable pathway from their starting reactants. These results provide a deeper insight into the support effect on C-H bond activation of small alkanes in general, and of methane in particular, on supported transition metal catalysts.