Ab initio statistical mechanics of surface adsorption and desorption. I. H2O on MgO (001) at low coverage

First-principles surface reaction rates by ring polymer molecular dynamics and neural network potential: role of anharmonicity and lattice motion

Elementary gas-surface processes are essential steps in heterogeneous catalysis. A predictive understanding of catalytic mechanisms remains challenging due largely to difficulties in accurately characterizing the kinetics of such steps. Experimentally, thermal rates for elementary surface reactions can now be measured using a novel velocity imaging technique, providing a stringent testing ground for ab initio rate theories. Here, we propose to combine ring polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) rate theory with state-of-the-art first-principles-determined neural network potential to calculate surface reaction rates. Taking NO desorption from Pd(111) as an example, we show that the harmonic approximation and the neglect of lattice motion in the commonly-used transition state theory overestimates and underestimates the entropy change during the desorption process, respectively, leading to opposite errors in rate coefficient predictions and artificial error cancellations. Including anharmonicity and lattice motion, our results reveal a generally neglected surface entropy change due to significant local structural change during desorption and obtain the right answer for the right reasons. Although quantum effects are found to be less important in this system, the proposed approach establishes a more reliable theoretical benchmark for accurately predicting the kinetics of elementary gas-surface processes.

Quasi-equilibrium predictions of water desorption kinetics from rapidly-heated metal oxide surfaces

Controlling sub-microsecond desorption of water and other impurities from electrode surfaces at high heating rates is crucial for pulsed power applications. Despite the short time scales involved, quasi-equilibrium ideas based on transition state theory (TST) and Arrhenius temperature dependence have been widely applied to fit desorption activation free energies. In this work, we apply molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in conjunction with equilibrium potential-of-mean-force (PMF) techniques to directly compute the activation free energies (ΔG*) associated with desorption of intact water molecules from Fe2O3and Cr2O3(0001) surfaces. The desorption free energy profiles are diffuse, without maxima, and have substantial dependences on temperature and surface water coverage. Incorporating the predicted ΔG* into an analytical form gives rate equations that are in reasonable agreement with non-equilibrium molecular dynamics desorption simulations. We also show that different ΔG* analytical functional forms which give similar predictions at a particular heating rate can yield desorption times that differ by up to a factor of four or more when the ramp rate is extrapolated by 8 orders of magnitude. This highlights the importance of constructing a physically-motivated ΔG* functional form to predict fast desorption kinetics.

Dynamics of Monolayer Physisorption in Homogeneous Mesoporous Media

A model for monolayer physisorption of a one-component gas on the pore surface of a homogeneous macroporous or mesoporous porous medium is presented. It originates from an averaging over many pores of a macroporous medium filled with a one-component fluid. The resulting model does not assume anything about pore shape, but assumes that the pores are so large that capillary condensation does not occur. Mathematically, the model gives coverage as the solution of an ordinary, first-order, differential equation, where the time derivative of coverage is proportional to the difference between the chemical potential of the adsorbate and the chemical potential of the ambient gas. Coverage is determined by the ambient gas density, with temperature, adsorbate critical temperature, and the Henry adsorption constant as parameters. The rest of this abstract describes what is deduced from the equations of the model. Adsorbate phase transitions are built into the model by the use of van der Waals equations of state. Equilibrium isotherms are derived from the equality of the chemical potentials. The differential equation for coverage makes it possible to determine the mathematical stability of the equilibrium isotherms, and a number of properties of the isotherms are derived, the most important being as follows: (i) an adsorbate phase transition is always accompanied by a well-defined hysteresis loop, although "loop" is somewhat misleading as its vertical boundaries do not consist of equilibrium states; (ii) the vertical boundaries are exactly located; (iii) the upper and lower boundaries consist of states that are mathematically stable, while being either physically stable or metastable, and if physical metastability is the case, then the actual state of the adsorbate (mono- or bi-phasic) will not be visible on the equilibrium isotherm. The shapes of the equilibrium isotherms are largely determined by the value of the Henry constant, whether the isotherms are subcritical or supercritical. Expressions for the location of an equilibrium isotherm's region of fastest variation and for the locations of the vertical boundaries of its hysteresis loop are found that also show the importance of Henry's constant. Dynamical, that is, time-dependent isotherms are presented for the case describing the variation of coverage resulting from forcing the ambient gas to undergo a compression-decompression loop. Two subcases are considered: the subcritical and the supercritical adsorbate. It is shown that coverage in terms of ambient pressure exhibits closed loops, even in supercritical isotherms. However, supercritical loops shrink when the cycle time increases, reminiscent of rate-dependent hysteresis observed in piezoelectricity. The model is used to interpret two experiments on the sorption of CO₂ and CH₄ on coal that showed hysteresis loops in isotherms of supercritical adsorbates and that were originally interpreted as leading to different Henry constants for adsorption and for desorption. The interpretation set forth here uses the inherent dynamics of the model and looks at the loop as just one isotherm evolving in time, thus leading to a unique Henry constant.

The interaction of halogen atoms and molecules with borophene

The realization of buckled monolayer sheets of boron (i.e., borophene) and its other polymorphs has attracted significant interest in the field of two-dimensional systems. Motivated by borophene's tendency to donate electrons, we analyzed the interaction of single halogen atoms (F, Cl, Br, I) with borophene. The possible adsorption sites are tested and the top of the boron atom is found as the ground state configuration. The nature of bonding and strong chemical interaction is revealed by using projected density of states and charge difference analysis. The migration of single halogen atoms on the surface of borophene is analyzed and high diffusion barriers that decrease with atomic size are obtained. The metallicity of borophene is preserved upon adsorption but anisotropy in electrical conductivity is altered. The variation of adsorption and formation energy, interatomic distance, charge transfer, diffusion barriers, and bonding character with the type of halogen atom are explored and trends are revealed. Lastly, the adsorption of halogen molecules (F₂, Cl₂, Br₂, I₂), including the possibility of dissociation, is studied. The obtained results are not only substantial for fundamental understanding of halogenated derivatives of borophene, but also are useful for near future technological applications.

Comparing van der Waals DFT methods for water on NaCl(001) and MgO(001)

In this work, a range of van der Waals type density functionals are applied to the H₂O/NaCl(001) and H₂O/MgO(001) interface systems to explore the effect of an explicit dispersion treatment. The functionals we use are the self-consistent vdW functionals vdW-DF, vdW-DF2, optPBE-vdW, optB88-vdW, optB86b-vdW, and vdW-DF-cx, as well as the dispersion-corrected PBE-TS and PBE-D2 methods; they are all compared with the standard PBE functional. For both NaCl(001) and MgO(001), we find that the dispersion-flavoured functionals stabilize the water-surface interface by approximately 20%-40% compared to the PBE results. For NaCl(001), where the water molecules remain intact for all overlayers, the dominant contribution to the adsorption energy from "density functional theory dispersion" stems from the water-surface interactions rather than the water-water interactions. The optPBE-vdW and vdW-DF-cx functionals yield adsorption energies in good agreement with available experimental values for both NaCl and MgO. To probe the strengths of the perturbations of the adsorbed water molecules, we also calculated water dipole moments and found an increase up to 85% for water at the MgO(001) surface and 70% at the NaCl(001) surface, compared to the gas-phase dipole moment.

Molecular dynamics study of the melt morphology of polyethylene chains with different branching characteristics adjacent to a clay surface

Conformations of model high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) chains with different intramolecular branch distributions adsorbed on a relaxed octahedral surface of kaolinite, a major clay mineral, at 463 K (190 degrees C) were studied by using classical molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. Prior to the MD simulations, first-principle density functional theory (DFT) calculations were carried out to relax the inorganic surface that was created by cleaving the corresponding kaolinite crystal structure. The high-temperature MD simulation results showed that an ordered polyethylene region with a thickness of about one to three layers of chain segments developed rapidly near the clay surface. On the other hand, chain segments in the far field slowly evolved into another ordered region with a higher degree of order than the one adjacent to the surface. It was observed that the melt morphology in the far field depends on the architecture of the chains. Also, in between the two ordered regions, a region that contained no apparent order formed. The above observation is attributed to the fact that the mobility of chain segments adjacent to the surface was greatly reduced as a result of their strong affinity for the surface, while those in the far field were not. Despite the fact that the results are for the melt state, they suggest that nucleation and lamellar growth of polymer chains nearby an inorganic surface may proceed from the chain segments in the ordered region in the far field rather than from the organic/inorganic interface. This is because chain segments in the three described regions, upon cooling, should not have sufficient thermal energy to reorient themselves drastically to form a single lamella under normal crystallization conditions. However, it should be noted that the above speculation is made based on a rather short equilibration time (approximately 10 ns) used in the simulations.