The role of single-atom Rh-dopants in the adsorption properties of OH and CO on stepped Ag(211) surfaces

Several chemical reactions with commercial and environmental importance can benefit from the development of more active or selective heterogeneous catalysts. Particularly, those catalyzed by metallic surfaces are usually impacted by the presence of defects such as kinks and dopants. Here, we employed density functional theory calculations within van der Waals correction to investigate the effects of single-atom Rh-dopants in the adsorption properties of OH and CO on stepped Ag(211) surfaces. From our calculations and analyses, we found that the dopant is more energetically stable when replacing more coordinated (and less exposed to the vacuum) sites of the surface. However, in the presence of both molecules, this trend is inverted, and the dopant is more stable in the least coordinated site (step). While OH presents high adsorption energies on both doped and non-doped silver surfaces, CO binds weakly to the noble metal, and strongly on doped sites. The results are relevant for understanding single-atom catalysts on noble-metal surfaces, where the difference in selectivity and activity between the host metal and dopants is exploited. The charge redistribution caused by the dopant, and the appearance of a sharp peak in the density of states of the surface are used to rationalize the results and provide insights into the interactions involved in the adsorption of both molecules.

Exploring the adsorption site coordination as a strategy to tune copper catalysts for CO2 electro-reduction

The atomistic engineering of the catalyst substrate was explored as a strategy to tune Cu catalysts for CO2 reduction towards different C1 products.

The in situ growth of Cu2O with a honeycomb structure on a roughed graphite paper for the efficient electroreduction of CO2 to C2H4

A Cu2O/NGP self-supporting electrocatalyst is used for the electrocatalytic reduction of CO2 to ethylene to solve environmental and energy problems.