Point defects in CaF2 and CeO2 investigated by the periodic electrostatic embedded cluster method

The application of QM/MM simulations in heterogeneous catalysis

The QM/MM simulation method is provenly efficient for the simulation of biological systems, where an interplay of extensive environment and delicate local interactions drives a process of interest through a funnel on a complex energy landscape. Recent advances in quantum chemistry and force-field methods present opportunities for the adoption of QM/MM to simulate heterogeneous catalytic processes, and their related systems, where similar intricacies exist on the energy landscape. Herein, the fundamental theoretical considerations for performing QM/MM simulations, and the practical considerations for setting up QM/MM simulations of catalytic systems, are introduced; then, areas of heterogeneous catalysis are explored where QM/MM methods have been most fruitfully applied. The discussion includes simulations performed for adsorption processes in solvent at metallic interfaces, reaction mechanisms within zeolitic systems, nanoparticles, and defect chemistry within ionic solids. We conclude with a perspective on the current state of the field and areas where future opportunities for development and application exist.

Toward a Consistent Prediction of Defect Chemistry in CeO2

Polarizable shell-model potentials are widely used for atomic-scale modeling of charged defects in solids using the Mott-Littleton approach and hybrid Quantum Mechanical/Molecular Mechanical (QM/MM) embedded-cluster techniques. However, at the pure MM level of theory, the calculated defect energetics may not satisfy the requirement of quantitative predictions and are limited to only certain charged states. Here, we proposed a novel interatomic potential development scheme that unifies the predictions of all relevant charged defects in CeO₂ based on the Mott-Littleton approach and QM/MM electronic-structure calculations. The predicted formation energies of oxygen vacancies accompanied by different excess electron localization patterns at the MM level of theory reach the accuracy of density functional theory (DFT) calculations using hybrid functionals. The new potential also accurately reproduces a wide range of physical properties of CeO₂, showing excellent agreement with experimental and other computational studies. These findings provide opportunities for accurate large-scale modeling of the partial reduction and nonstoichiometry in CeO₂, as well as a prototype for developing robust interatomic potentials for other defective crystals.

Liquid-Phase Effects on Adsorption Processes in Heterogeneous Catalysis

Aqueous solvation free energies of adsorption have recently been measured for phenol adsorption on Pt(111). Endergonic solvent effects of ∼1 eV suggest solvents dramatically influence a metal catalyst's activity with significant implications for the catalyst design. However, measurements are indirect and involve adsorption isotherm models, which potentially reduces the reliability of the extracted energy values. Computational, implicit solvation models predict exergonic solvation effects for phenol adsorption, failing to agree with measurements even qualitatively. In this study, an explicit, hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical approach for computing solvation free energies of adsorption is developed, solvation free energies of phenol adsorption are computed, and experimental data for solvation free energies of phenol adsorption are reanalyzed using multiple adsorption isotherm models. Explicit solvation calculations predict an endergonic solvation free energy for phenol adsorption that agrees well with measurements to within the experimental and force field uncertainties. Computed adsorption free energies of solvation of carbon monoxide, ethylene glycol, benzene, and phenol over the (111) facet of Pt and Cu suggest that liquid water destabilizes all adsorbed species, with the largest impact on the largest adsorbates.

Interactions of water and short-chain alcohols with CoFe2O4(001) surfaces at low coverages

Iron and cobalt-based oxides crystallizing in the spinel structure are efficient and affordable catalysts for the oxidation of organics, yet, the detailed understanding of their surface structure and reactivity is limited. To fill this gap, we have investigated the (001) surfaces of cobalt ferrite, CoFe₂O₄, with the A- and B-layer terminations using density functional theory (DFT/PBE0) and an embedded cluster model. We have considered the five-fold coordinated Co^2+/3+ (O_h), two-fold coordinated Fe²⁺ (T_d), and an oxygen vacancy, as active sites for the adsorption of water and short-chain alcohols: methanol, ethanol, and 2-propanol, in the low coverage regime. The adsorbates dissociate upon adsorption on the Fe sites whereas the adsorption is mainly molecular on Co. At oxygen vacancies, the adsorbates always dissociate, fill the vacancy and form (partially) hydroxylated surfaces. The computed vibrational spectra for the most stable configurations are compared with results from diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy.

Quantitative molecular simulations

All-atom simulations can provide molecular-level insights into the dynamics of gas-phase, condensed-phase and surface processes. One important requirement is a sufficiently realistic and detailed description of the underlying intermolecular interactions. The present perspective provides an overview of the present status of quantitative atomistic simulations from colleagues' and our own efforts for gas- and solution-phase processes and for the dynamics on surfaces. Particular attention is paid to direct comparison with experiment. An outlook discusses present challenges and future extensions to bring such dynamics simulations even closer to reality.

Activation of Molecular O2 on CoFe2 O4 (001) Surfaces: An Embedded Cluster Study

Dioxygen activation pathways on the (001) surfaces of cobalt ferrite, CoFe₂O₄, were investigated computationally using density functional theory and the hybrid Perdew‐Burke‐Ernzerhof exchange‐correlation functional (PBE0) within the periodic electrostatic embedded cluster model. We considered two terminations: the A‐layer exposing Fe²⁺ and Co²⁺ metal sites in tetrahedral and octahedral positions, respectively, and the B‐layer exposing octahedrally coordinated Co³⁺. On the A‐layer, molecular oxygen is chemisorbed as a superoxide on the Fe monocenter or bridging a Fe−Co cation pair, whereas on the B‐layer it is adsorbed at the most stable anionic vacancy. Activation is promoted by transfer of electrons provided by the d metal centers onto the adsorbed oxygen. The subsequent dissociation of dioxygen into monoatomic species and surface reoxidation have been identified as the most critical steps that may limit the rate of the oxidation processes. Of the reactive metal‐O species, [Fe^III−O]²⁺ is thermodynamically most stable, while the oxygen of the Co−O species may easily migrate across the A‐layer with barriers smaller than the associative desorption.

Modeling UV-Vis spectra of low dimensional materials using electrostatic embedding: The case of CdSe

We present a generalization of a self-consistent electrostatic embedding approach (SC-Ewald) devised to investigate the photophysical properties of 3D periodic materials, to systems in one- or two-dimensional (2D) reduced periodicity. In this approach, calculations are carried out on a small finite molecular cluster extracted from a periodic model, while the crystalline environment is accounted for by an array of point charges which are fitted to reproduce the exact electrostatic potential (at ground or the excited state) of the infinite periodic system. Periodic density functional theory (DFT) calculations are combined with time dependent DFT calculations to simulate absorption and emission properties of the extended system under investigation. We apply this method to compute the UV-Vis. spectra of bulk and quantum-confined 0D quantum dots and 2D extended nanoplatelets of CdSe, due to their relevance as sensitizers in solar cells technologies. The influence of the size and shape of the finite cluster model chosen in the excited state calculations was also investigated and revealed that, although the long-range electrostatics of the environment are important for the calculation of the UV-Vis, a subtle balance between short- and long-range effects exists. These encouraging results demonstrate that this self-consistent electrostatic embedding approach, when applied in different dimensions, can successfully model the photophysical properties of diverse material classes, making it an attractive low-cost alternative to far more computationally demanding electronic structure methods for excited state calculations.

Dependency of solvation effects on metal identity in surface reactions

Solvent interactions with adsorbed moieties involved in surface reactions are often believed to be similar for different metal surfaces. However, solvents alter the electronic structures of surface atoms, which in turn affects their interaction with adsorbed moieties. To reveal the importance of metal identity on aqueous solvent effects in heterogeneous catalysis, we studied solvent effects on the activation free energies of the O-H and C-H bond cleavages of ethylene glycol over the (111) facet of six transition metals (Ni, Pd, Pt, Cu, Ag, Au) using an explicit solvation approach based on a hybrid quantum mechanical/molecular mechanical (QM/MM) description of the potential energy surface. A significant metal dependence on aqueous solvation effects was observed that suggests solvation effects must be studied in detail for every reaction system. The main reason for this dependence could be traced back to a different amount of charge-transfer between the adsorbed moieties and metals in the reactant and transition states for the different metal surfaces.

Final-State Simulations of Core-Level Binding Energies at Metal-Organic Hybrid Interfaces: Artifacts Caused by Spurious Collective Electrostatic Effects

Core-level energies are frequently calculated to explain the X-ray photoelectron spectra of metal-organic hybrid interfaces. The current paper describes how such simulations can be flawed when modeling interfaces between physisorbed organic molecules and metals. The problem occurs when applying periodic boundary conditions to correctly describe extended interfaces and simultaneously considering core hole excitations in the framework of a final-state approach to account for screening effects. Since the core hole is generated in every unit cell, an artificial dipole layer is formed. In this work, we study methane on an Al(100) surface as a deliberately chosen model system for hybrid interfaces to evaluate the impact of this computational artifact. We show that changing the supercell size leads to artificial shifts in the calculated core-level energies that can be well beyond 1 eV for small cells. The same applies to atoms at comparably large distances from the substrate, encountered, for example, in extended, upright-standing adsorbate molecules. We also argue that the calculated work function change due to a core-level excitation can serve as an indication for the occurrence of such an artifact and discuss possible remedies for the problem.

Extension and evaluation of the D4 London-dispersion model for periodic systems

We present an extension of the DFT-D4 model [J. Chem. Phys., 2019, 150, 154122] for periodic systems. The main new ingredients are additional reference polarizabilities for highly-coordinated group 1-5 elements derived from pseudo-periodic electrostatically-embedded cluster calculations. To illustrate the performance of the updated method, several test cases are considered, for which we compare D4 to its predecessor D3(BJ), as well as to a comprehensive set of other dispersion-corrected methods. The largest improvements are observed for solid-state polarizabilities of 16 inorganic salts, where the D4 model achieves an unprecedented accuracy, surpassing its predecessor as well as other, computationally much more demanding approaches. For cell volumes and lattice energies of two sets of chemically diverse molecular crystals, the accuracy gain is less pronounced compared to the already excellently performing D3(BJ) method. For the challenging adsorption energies of small organic molecules on metallic as well as on ionic surfaces, DFT-D4 provides values in good agreement with experimental and/or high-level references. These results suggest the application of the proposed D4 model as a physically improved yet computationally efficient dispersion correction for standard DFT calculations as well as low-cost approaches like semi-empirical or even force-field models.

Assessment of Density Functional Approximations for Highly Correlated Oxides: The Case of CeO2 and Ce2O3

CeO₂ based materials are very attractive as catalytic components for industrial processes and environmentally friendly technologies; therefore, a reliable and computationally affordable theoretical description of the main properties of ceria is needed. In particular, the description of the interconversion between the Ce(IV) and Ce(III) oxidation states, on which lies the main chemical features of the cerium oxide, results in quite a challenge at the Density Functional Theory level. Here, we tested several density functional approximations, spanning from GGA to hybrid (Global, Meta-Global, and Range Separated Corrected) functionals, on the structural, vibrational, electronic, and thermochemical properties of bulk CeO₂ and Ce₂O₃. GGA and Meta-GGA xc best predict the thermochemical data, while the discrepancies increase with the introduction of the exact exchange in hybrid functionals. Overall, the Short Range Corrected and Global Hybrid functionals with a percentage of Exact Exchange between 16 and 25 give the best description of the crystal properties. Then, a group of the best performing functionals has been tested on the formation energy of an oxygen vacancy at the (111) CeO₂ surface. In general, increasing the amount of exact exchange in the hybrid functionals leads to a better description of the localized Ce 4 f states, while the energy of formation of the O vacancy decreases, worsening compared to the experiment.

Covalent bonding in heavy metal oxides

Novel theoretical methods were used to quantify the magnitude and the energetic contributions of 4f/5f-O2p and 5d/6d-O2p interactions to covalent bonding in lanthanide and actinide oxides. Although many analyses have neglected the involvement of the frontier d orbitals, the present study shows that f and d covalencies are of comparable importance. Two trends are identified. As is expected, the covalent mixing is larger when the nominal oxidation state is higher. More subtly, the importance of the nf covalent mixing decreases sharply relative to (n + 1)d as the nf occupation increases. Atomic properties of the metal cations that drive these trends are identified.

Chemically accurate adsorption energies for methane and ethane monolayers on the MgO(001) surface

A hybrid QM:QM method that combines MP2 as high-level method on cluster models with density functional theory (PBE+D2) as low-level method on periodic models is applied to adsorption of methane and ethane on the MgO(001) surface for which reliable experimental desorption enthalpies are available. Two coverages are considered, monolayer (every second Mg2+ ion occupied) and one quarter coverage (one of eight Mg2+ ions occupied). Structure optimizations are performed at the hybrid MP2:(PBE+D2) level, with the MP2 energies and forces counterpoise corrected for basis set superposition error and extrapolated to the complete basis set limit. For the MP2 calculations on the adsorbate monolayer a two-body expansion of the lateral molecule-molecule interactions is applied. Higher order correlation effects are evaluated at the hybrid MP2:(PBE+D2) equilibrium structures as coupled cluster [CCSD(T)] - MP2 differences adopting smaller basis sets. The final adsorption energies obtained for monolayer coverage are -14.0 ± 1.0 and -23.3 ± 0.6 kJ mol-1 for CH4·MgO(001) and C2H6·MgO(001), respectively. They agree within 1 kJ mol-1 - well within chemical accuracy limits - with reference energies of -15.0 ± 0.6 and -24.4 ± 0.6 kJ mol-1, respectively. The latter have been derived from measured desorption enthalpy barriers, taking zero-point vibrational energy (ZPVE) and thermal enthalpy contributions into account.

First-Principle Investigations of the Interaction between CO and O2 with Group 11 Atoms on a Defect-Free MgO(001) Surface

In this contribution, we investigate the interaction between CO and O₂ with metal atoms of group 11 deposited on a defect-free magnesium oxide surface using density functional theory with periodic point charge embedding. We present the first transversal study of the adsorption and coadsorption of CO and O₂ on coinage metal adatoms deposited on metal oxide surfaces from the perspective of single-atom catalysis. Various analysis tools shed light on the binding situation of the metal atoms to the substrate as well as on the situation of the two molecules on the different metal centers. Our analysis demonstrates that cooperative electronic effects enhance the stability of CO upon coadsorption with O₂ for all three metal centers. Our results also explain the lack of catalytic activity of group 11 metal atoms with respect to CO oxidation under thermal conditions as a competition between OC-O₂ bond activation and surface diffusion, leading to metal atom agglomeration. Additionally, it is shown how coadsorption of CO and O₂ on Au/Mg(001) could pave the way to single-atom photocatalysis.

Large Differences in the Optical Spectrum Associated with the Same Complex: The Effect of the Anisotropy of the Embedding Lattice

Transition-metal complexes with a well-defined geometry are usually considered to display almost the same properties independently of the system where they are embedded. Here we show that the above statement is not true depending on the anisotropy of the host lattice, which is revealed in the form of the electric field created by the rest of lattice ions over the complex. To illustrate this concept we analyze the origin of the surprisingly large differences in the d-d optical transitions of two systems containing square-planar CuF₄^2- complexes, CaCuF₄, and center II in Cu²⁺-doped Ba₂ZnF₆, even though the Cu²⁺-F^-distance difference is just found to be 1%. Using a minimalist first-principles model we show that the different morphology of the host lattices creates an anisotropic field that red-shifts the in vacuo complex transitions to the 1.25-1.70 eV range in CaCuF₄, while it blue-shifts them to the 1.70-3.0 eV region in Ba₂ZnF₆:Cu²⁺. This particular example shows how the lattice anisotropy strongly alters the optical properties of a given transition-metal complex. This knowledge opens a new path to tune the spectra of this large family of systems.

Initial stages of CO2 adsorption on CaO: a combined experimental and computational study

Room temperature adsorption of carbon dioxide (CO₂) on monocrystalline CaO(001) thin films grown on a Mo(001) substrate was studied by infrared reflection–absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) and quantum chemical calculations.

Accurate adsorption energies for small molecules on oxide surfaces: CH4 /MgO(001) and C2 H6 /MgO(001)

A hybrid method is applied that combines second order Møller-Plesset perturbation theory (MP2) for cluster models with density functional theory for periodic (slab) models to obtain structures and energies for methane and ethane molecules adsorbed on the MgO(001) surface. Single point calculations are performed to estimate the effect of increasing the cluster size on the MP2 energies and to evaluate the difference between coupled cluster (CCSD(T)) and MP2 energies. The final estimates of the adsorption energies are 12.9 ± 1.3 and 18.9 ± 1.8 kJ/mol for CH4 and C2 H6 , respectively. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

How surface reparation prevents catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide on atomic gold at defective magnesium oxide surfaces

In this contribution, we study using first principles the co-adsorption and catalytic behaviors of CO and O2 on a single gold atom deposited at defective magnesium oxide surfaces. Using cluster models and point charge embedding within a density functional theory framework, we simulate the CO oxidation reaction for Au1 on differently charged oxygen vacancies of MgO(001) to rationalize its experimentally observed lack of catalytic activity. Our results show that: (1) co-adsorption is weakly supported at F(0) and F(2+) defects but not at F(1+) sites, (2) electron redistribution from the F(0) vacancy via the Au1 cluster to the adsorbed molecular oxygen weakens the O2 bond, as required for a sustainable catalytic cycle, (3) a metastable carbonate intermediate can form on defects of the F(0) type, (4) only a small activation barrier exists for the highly favorable dissociation of CO2 from F(0), and (5) the moderate adsorption energy of the gold atom on the F(0) defect cannot prevent insertion of molecular oxygen inside the defect. Due to the lack of protection of the color centers, the surface becomes invariably repaired by the surrounding oxygen and the catalytic cycle is irreversibly broken in the first oxidation step.

Reactivity of metal oxide clusters with hydrogen peroxide and water--a DFT study evaluating the performance of different exchange-correlation functionals

We have performed a density functional theory (DFT) investigation of the interactions of H2O2, H2O and HO radicals with clusters of ZrO2, TiO2 and Y2O3. Different modes of H2O adsorption onto the clusters were studied. In almost all the cases the dissociative adsorption is more exothermic than molecular adsorption. At the surfaces where H2O has undergone dissociative adsorption, the adsorption of H2O2 and the transition state for its decomposition are mediated by hydrogen bonding with the surface HO groups. Using the functionals B3LYP, B3LYP-D and M06 with clusters of 26 and 8 units of ZrO2, the M06 functional performed better than B3LYP in describing the reaction of decomposition of H2O2 and the adsorption of H2O. Additionally, we investigated clusters of the type (ZrO2)2, (TiO2)2 and (Y2O3) and the performance of the functionals B3LYP, B3LYP-D, B3LYP*, M06, M06-L, PBE0, PBE and PWPW91 in describing H2O2, H2O and HO˙ adsorption and the energy barrier for decomposition of H2O2. The trends obtained for HO˙ adsorption onto the clusters are discussed in terms of the ionization energy of the metal cation present in the oxide. In order to correctly account for the existence of an energy barrier for the decomposition of H2O2, the functional used must include Hartree-Fock exchange. Using minimal cluster models, the best performance in describing the energy barrier for H2O2 decomposition was obtained with the M06 and PBE0 functionals - the average absolute deviations from experiments are 6 kJ mol(-1) and 5 kJ mol(-1) respectively. With the M06 functional and a larger monoclinic (ZrO2)8 cluster model, the performance is in excellent agreement with experimental data. For the different oxides, PBE0 was found to be the most effective functional in terms of performance and computational time cost.

Accurate adsorption energies of small molecules on oxide surfaces: CO-MgO(001)

A hybrid MP2:DFT + D optimization method is applied using a 3 × 3 × 2 cluster model (Mg9O9) embedded in a 4 × 4 × 4 slab model. The calculated CO-Mg(2+) distance is 248 pm, and the calculated CO frequency (blue) shift is 20 cm(-1), 6 cm(-1) larger than the experimental value. For the structure obtained, MP2 calculations with basis set extrapolation on a series of cluster models of increasing size are performed. Taking into account the difference in the periodic limit at the DFT + D level, 20.9 ± 0.7 kJ mol(-1) is obtained as the estimate for the full periodic MP2 limit for the energy of CO desorption from the MgO(001) surface. CCSD(T) corrections are evaluated for the Mg9O9 cluster model using an augmented double-zeta basis set. Basis set extension effects are examined for smaller models. For a loading of Θ = 1/8, the estimated CCSD(T) value is 21.0 ± 1.0 kJ mol(-1), which is 0.4 ± 1.0 kJ mol(-1) larger than the (electronic) desorption energy derived in this study from TPD desorption barriers reported in the literature.

Concentration of vacancies at metal-oxide surfaces: case study of MgO(100)

We investigate the effects of doping on the formation energy and concentration of oxygen vacancies at a metal-oxide surface, using MgO(100) as an example. Our approach employs density-functional theory, where the performance of the exchange-correlation functional is carefully analyzed, and the functional is chosen according to a condition on density-functional theory ionization energies. The approach is further validated by coupled-cluster calculations, including single, double, and perturbative triple substitutions, for embedded clusters. We demonstrate that the concentration of oxygen vacancies at a doped oxide surface is largely determined by the formation of a macroscopically extended space-charge region.

A periodic charge-dipole electrostatic model: parametrization for silver slabs

We present an extension of the charge-dipole model for the description of periodic systems. This periodic charge-dipole electrostatic model (PCDEM) allows one to describe the linear response of periodic structures in terms of charge- and dipole-type gaussian basis functions. The long-range electrostatic interaction is efficiently described by means of the continuous fast multipole method. As a first application, the PCDEM method is applied to describe the polarizability of silver slabs. We find that for a correct description of the polarizability of the slabs both charges and dipoles are required. However a continuum set of parametrizations, i.e., different values of the width of charge- and dipole-type gaussians, leads to an equivalent and accurate description of the slabs polarizability but a completely unphysical description of induced charge-density inside the slab. We introduced the integral squared density measure which allows one to obtain a unique parametrization which accurately describes both the polarizability and the induced density profile inside the slab. Finally the limits of the electrostatic approximations are also pointed out.

Fragment-based quantum mechanical methods for periodic systems with Ewald summation and mean image charge convention for long-range electrostatic interactions

We describe an Ewald-summation method to incorporate long-range electrostatic interactions into fragment-based electronic structure methods for periodic systems. The present method is an extension of the particle-mesh Ewald technique for combined quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical (QM/MM) calculations, and it has been implemented into the explicit polarization (X-Pol) potential to illustrate the computational details. As in the QM/MM-Ewald method, the X-Pol-Ewald approach is a linear-scaling electrostatic method, in which the short-range electrostatic interactions are determined explicitly in real space and the long-range Ewald pair potential is incorporated into the Fock matrix as a correction. To avoid the time-consuming Fock matrix update during the self-consistent field procedure, a mean image charge (MIC) approximation is introduced, in which the running average with a user-chosen correlation time is used to represent the long-range electrostatic correction as an average effect. Test simulations on liquid water show that the present X-Pol-Ewald method takes about 25% more CPU time than the usual X-Pol method using spherical cutoff, whereas the use of the MIC approximation reduces the extra costs for long-range electrostatic interactions by 15%. The present X-Pol-Ewald method provides a general procedure for incorporating long-range electrostatic effects into fragment-based electronic structure methods for treating biomolecular and condensed-phase systems under periodic boundary conditions.

Electrostatic-field-driven alignment of organic oligomers on ZnO surfaces

We study the physisorption of organic oligomers on the strongly ionic ZnO(1010) surface by using first-principles density-functional theory and nonempirical embedding methods. It turns out that the in-plane variation of the molecule-substrate interaction energy and the bonding dipole in the vertical direction are linked up by a linear relationship originating from the electrostatic coupling of the molecule with the periodic dipolar electric field generated by the Zn-O surface dimers. Long oligomers with a highly axial π-electron system such as sexiphenyl become well oriented with alignment energies of several 100 meV along rows of a positive electric field, in full agreement with recent experiments. These findings define a new route towards the realization of highly ordered self-assembled arrays of oligomers or polymers on ZnO(1010) and similar surfaces.

Electron localization in defective ceria films: a study with scanning-tunneling microscopy and density-functional theory

Scanning-tunneling microscopy and density-functional theory have been employed to identify the spatial correlation between an oxygen vacancy and the associated Ce(3+) ion pair in a defective CeO(2)(111) film. The two Ce(3+) ions can occupy different cationic shells around the vacancy. The resulting variation in the chemical environment leads to a splitting of the filled Ce(3+) f levels, which is detected with STM spectroscopy. The position of the Ce(3+) ion pair is reflected in characteristic defect patterns observed in empty-state STM images, which arise from the bright appearance of Ce(4+) ions next to the defect while the Ce(3+) remain dark. Both findings demonstrate that at least one excess electron localizes in a Ce ion that is not adjacent to the O vacancy.