A work function change study of oxygen adsorption on Pt(111) and Pt(100)

Direct Work Function Measurement Using in-situ Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy and Its Application on Copper Oxidation Process

The work function (WF) measurement plays a critical role in engineering energy materials and energy devices. However, the ultra-high vacuum (UHV) environments of photoemission method limit the practical application for absolute work function measurements of materials, especially under complex working conditions. To understand the energy level of materials under complex chemical environments, the in-situ measurements of work function is necessary in complex metal/semiconductor system for various application. In this paper, we describe the utilization of ambient pressure X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (APXPS) with utilization of low photon energy X-ray for absolute WF measurements at BL02B of the Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility. We herein present the WF measurement during oxygen adsorption on Pt(111) and oxidation of Cu(111) in ambient oxygen environment as demonstration of the APXPS capability for WF measurement. After oxygen chemisorption on Pt and formation of Cu2O, the WF will increase. This is due to charge transfer from metal to chemisorbed oxygen atoms. After the formation of bulk Cu2O and CuO, the WF value almost remain at ~5.5 eV. We believe the direct measurement of absolute work function via APXPS could help bridge the gap between the physical properties and the surface chemical species for metal/semiconductor materials.

Oxygen Adsorption, Subsurface Oxygen Layer Formation and Reaction with Hydrogen on Surfaces of a Pt–Rh Alloy Nanocrystal

The oxygen adsorption and its catalytic reaction with hydrogen on Pt–Rh single crystals were studied at the nanoscale by Field Emission Microscopy (FEM) and Field Ion Microscopy (FIM) techniques at 700 K. Both FEM and FIM use samples prepared as sharp tips, apexes of which mimic a single nanoparticle of catalyst considering their similar size and morphology. Oxygen adsorption on Pt-17.4 at.%Rh samples leads to the formation of subsurface oxygen, which is manifested in the field emission (FE) patterns: for O2 exposure of ~3 Langmuir (L), {113} planes appear bright in the emission pattern, while for higher oxygen doses, i.e. 84 L, the bright regions correspond to the high index planes between the {012} and {011} planes. Formation of subsurface oxygen is probably accompanied by a surface reconstruction of the nanocrystal. The subsurface oxygen can be effectively reacted off by subsequent exposure of the sample to hydrogen gas at 700 K. The hydrogenation reaction was observed as a sudden, eruptive change of the brightness seen on the FE pattern. This reaction resulted in the recovery of the initial field emission pattern characteristic of a clean tip, with {012} facets being the most visible. It was shown that the oxygen accumulation-reduction process is completely reversible. The obtained results indicate that the presence of subsurface species must be considered in the description of reactive processes on Pt–Rh catalysts.

Explainable and trustworthy artificial intelligence for correctable modeling in chemical sciences

Data science has primarily focused on big data, but for many physics, chemistry, and engineering applications, data are often small, correlated and, thus, low dimensional, and sourced from both computations and experiments with various levels of noise. Typical statistics and machine learning methods do not work for these cases. Expert knowledge is essential, but a systematic framework for incorporating it into physics-based models under uncertainty is lacking. Here, we develop a mathematical and computational framework for probabilistic artificial intelligence (AI)-based predictive modeling combining data, expert knowledge, multiscale models, and information theory through uncertainty quantification and probabilistic graphical models (PGMs). We apply PGMs to chemistry specifically and develop predictive guarantees for PGMs generally. Our proposed framework, combining AI and uncertainty quantification, provides explainable results leading to correctable and, eventually, trustworthy models. The proposed framework is demonstrated on a microkinetic model of the oxygen reduction reaction.

Binding Site Transitions Across Strained Oxygenated and Hydroxylated Pt(111)

The effects of strain σ on the binding position preference of oxygen atoms and hydroxyl groups adsorbed on Pt(111) have been investigated using density functional theory. A transition between the bridge and FCC binding occurs under compressive strain of the O/Pt(111) surface. A significant reconstruction occurs under compressive strain of the OH/Pt(111) surface, and the surface OH groups preferentially occupy on‐top (bridge) positions at highly compressive (less compressive/tensile) strains. Changes to magnetisation of the O‐ and OH‐populated surfaces are discussed and for O/Pt(111) oxygenation reduces the surface magnetism via a delocalised mechanism. The origins of the surface magnetisation for both O‐ and OH‐bearing systems are discussed in terms of the state‐resolved electronic populations and of the surface charge density.

Desorption of oxygen from alloyed Ag/Pt(111)

We have investigated the interaction of oxygen with the Ag/Pt(111) surface alloy by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). The surface alloy was formed during the deposition of sub-monolayer amounts of silver on Pt(111) at 800 K and subsequent cooling to 300 K. The low-temperature phase of the surface alloy is composed of nanometer-sized silver rich stripes, embedded within platinum-rich domains, which were characterized with spot profile analysis low energy electron diffraction. The TDS measurements show that oxygen adsorption is blocked on Ag sites: the saturation coverage of oxygen decreases with increasing Ag coverage. Also, the activation energy for desorption (Edes) decreases with Ag coverage. The analysis of the desorption spectra from clean Pt(111) shows a linear decay of Edes with oxygen coverage, which indicates repulsive interactions between the adsorbed oxygen atoms. In contrast, adsorption on alloyed Ag/Pt(111) leads to an attractive interaction between adsorbed oxygen atoms.

Coverage dependence and hydroperoxyl-mediated pathway of catalytic water formation on Pt (111) surface

Hydrogen oxidation on Pt (111) surface is modeled by density functional theory (DFT). Previous DFT calculations showed too large O2 dissociation barriers, but we find them highly coverage dependent: when the coverage is low, dissociation barriers close to experimental values (approximately 0.3 eV) are obtained. For the whole reaction, a new pathway involving hydroperoxyl (OOH) intermediate is found, with the highest reaction barrier of only approximately 0.4 eV. This may explain the experimental observation of catalytic water formation on Pt (111) surface above the H2O desorption temperature of 170 K, despite that the direct reaction between chemisorbed O and H atoms is a highly activated process with barrier approximately 1 eV as previous calculations showed.

Theoretical Study of the Adsorption and Dissociation of Oxygen on Pt(111) in the Presence of Homogeneous Electric Fields

The effect of homogeneous electric fields on the adsorption energies of atomic and molecular oxygen and the dissociation activation energy of molecular oxygen on Pt(111) were studied by density functional theory (DFT). Positive electric fields, corresponding to positively charged surfaces, reduce the adsorption energies of the oxygen species on Pt(111), whereas negative fields increase the adsorption energies. The magnitude of the energy change for a given field is primarily determined by the static surface dipole moment induced by adsorption. On 10-atom Pt(111) clusters, the adsorption energy of atomic oxygen decreased by ca. 0.25 eV in the presence of a 0.51 V/A (0.01 au) electric field. This energy change, however, is heavily dependent on the number of atoms in the Pt(111) cluster, as the static dipole moment decreases with cluster size. Similar calculations with periodic slab models revealed a change in energy smaller by roughly an order of magnitude relative to the 10-atom cluster results. Calculations with adsorbed molecular oxygen and its transition state for dissociation showed similar behavior. Additionally, substrate relaxation in periodic slab models lowers the static dipole moment and, therefore, the effect of electric field on binding energy. The results presented in this paper indicate that the electrostatic effect of electric fields at fuel cell cathodes may be sufficiently large to influence the oxygen reduction reaction kinetics by increasing the activation energy for dissociation.