Adsorbate islanding in surface reactions: A combined Monte Carlo‐lattice gas approach

A wafer-like apparatus for two-dimensional measurement of plasma parameters and temperature distribution in low-temperature plasmas

A wafer-type monitoring apparatus that can simultaneously measure the two-dimensional (2D) distributions of substrate temperature and plasma parameters is developed. To measure the temperature of the substrate, a platinum resistance temperature detector is used. The plasma density and electron temperature are obtained using the floating harmonics method, and incoming heat fluxes from the plasma to the substrate are obtained from the plasma density and electron temperature. In this paper, 2D distributions of the substrate temperature, plasma density, and electron temperature are obtained simultaneously for the first time in inductively coupled plasma. The shapes of the 2D distributions of the substrate temperature and incoming heat flux are similar to each other, but some differences are found. To understand that, an energy balance equation for the substrate is established, which shows good agreement with the experimental results. This apparatus will promote the understanding of surface reactions, which are very sensitive to the temperatures and plasma densities in plasma processing.

Computational Methods in Heterogeneous Catalysis

The unprecedented ability of computations to probe atomic-level details of catalytic systems holds immense promise for the fundamentals-based bottom-up design of novel heterogeneous catalysts, which are at the heart of the chemical and energy sectors of industry. Here, we critically analyze recent advances in computational heterogeneous catalysis. First, we will survey the progress in electronic structure methods and atomistic catalyst models employed, which have enabled the catalysis community to build increasingly intricate, realistic, and accurate models of the active sites of supported transition-metal catalysts. We then review developments in microkinetic modeling, specifically mean-field microkinetic models and kinetic Monte Carlo simulations, which bridge the gap between nanoscale computational insights and macroscale experimental kinetics data with increasing fidelity. We finally review the advancements in theoretical methods for accelerating catalyst design and discovery. Throughout the review, we provide ample examples of applications, discuss remaining challenges, and provide our outlook for the near future.

Oxygen island formation on Pt(111) studied by dynamic Monte Carlo simulation

The formation of oxygen islands on the Pt(111) surface has been studied as a function of temperature by low energy electron diffraction (LEED) experiments and dynamic Monte Carlo (DMC) simulations. By raising the temperature, the (2 x 2) LEED spot intensity increases gradually and decays after a peak at around 255 K (T(p)) with full width of half maximum of 160 K. This behavior is interpreted by DMC simulations with the kinematical LEED analysis. In the DMC simulation, an oxygen atom hops to the neighboring site via the activation barrier of the saddle point. The potential energies at initial, saddle, and final points are changed at each hopping event depending on the surrounding oxygen atoms. By comparing the observed T(p) with the simulated one, the interaction energy E of oxygen atoms on Pt(111) was determined to be 25+/-3 meV at 2a(0). The DMC simulations visualize how the oxygen islands are formed and collapse on Pt(111) with increase of the temperature and well reproduce the surface configurations observed by scanning tunneling microscopy.

Self-organized nanostructures in surface chemical reactions: Mechanisms and mesoscopic modeling

Nanoscale patterns can form in reactive adsorbates on catalytic surfaces as a result of attractive lateral interactions. These structures can be described within a mesoscopic theory that is derived by coarse graining the microscopic master equation thus providing a link between microscopic lattice models and reaction-diffusion equations. Such mesoscopic models allow to systematically investigate mechanisms responsible for the formation of nanoscale nonequilibrium patterns in reactive condensed matter. We have found that stationary and traveling nanostructures may result from the interplay of the attractive lateral interactions and nonequilibrium reactions. Besides reviewing these results, a detailed investigation of a single reactive adsorbate in the presence of attractive lateral interactions and global coupling through the gas phase is presented. Finally, it is outlined how a mesoscopic theory should be constructed for a particular scanning tunneling microscopy experiment [the oxidation of hydrogen on a Pt(111) surface] in order to overcome the failure of a corresponding reaction-diffusion model to quantitatively reproduce the experiments. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

From atomistic lattice-gas models for surface reactions to hydrodynamic reaction-diffusion equations

Atomistic lattice-gas models for surface reactions can accurately describe spatial correlations and ordering in chemisorbed layers due to adspecies interactions or due to limited mobility of some adspecies. The primary challenge in such modeling is to describe spatiotemporal behavior in the physically relevant "hydrodynamic" regime of rapid diffusion of (at least some) reactant adspecies. For such models, we discuss the development of exact reaction-diffusion equations (RDEs) describing mesoscale spatial pattern formation in surface reactions. Formulation and implementation of these RDEs requires detailed analysis of chemical diffusion in mixed reactant adlayers, as well as development of novel hybrid and parallel simulation techniques. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Microscopic aspects of pattern formation on surfaces

Recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) work gives insight into microscopic processes of surface reactions that play a role for spatio-temporal pattern formation. STM allows to resolve adsorbed particles, follow their surface motion, and monitor reactions with other particles on the atomic scale. The data reveal pronounced deviations from the implicite assumptions of the reaction-diffusion equations traditionally used to model spatio-temporal patterns. In contrast to these descriptions, particles are often not randomly distributed, but cluster in islands because of attractive interactions, and particle hopping can be highly correlated. It is shown that such phenomena can even affect the macroscopic kinetics. The article also discusses a case where the atomic processes inside propagating reaction fronts could be resolved. Here particular strong interaction effects were observed, caused by hydrogen bonds between the reacting species. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Kinetics of chemical reactions on solid surfaces: deviations from conventional theory

Isothermal kinetic measurements on elementary steps between species adsorbed on solid surfaces have highlighted significant deviations from conventional kinetic theories. In particular, it has been found that neighboring adsorbates modify the energetics of surface reaction in ways not explained by macroscopic kinetic models. The free energy barriers associated with transition state theory can be expanded to include coverage-dependent terms, but that does not account for local effects due to surface islanding. Changes in surface concentrations also lead to changes in adsorption geometries, and even to different adsorbate-surface bonding. Future Monte Carlo simulations and other theoretical approaches to describe surface kinetics need to include these factors.

Spatiotemporal self-organization in a surface reaction: from the atomic to the mesoscopic scale

Scanning tunneling microscopy data revealed the atomic processes in propagating reaction fronts that occur in the catalytic oxidation of hydrogen on Pt(111). The fronts were also characterized on mesoscopic length scales with respect to their velocity and width. Simulations on the basis of a reaction-diffusion model reproduce the experimental findings qualitatively well. The quantitative comparison reveals the limitations of this traditional approach to modeling spatiotemporal pattern formation in nonlinear dynamics.

Monte Carlo simulations for a Lotka-type model with reactant surface diffusion and interactions

The standard Lotka-type model, which was introduced for the first time by Mai et al. [J. Phys. A 30, 4171 (1997)] for a simplified description of autocatalytic surface reactions, is generalized here for a case of mobile and energetically interacting reactants. The mathematical formalism is proposed for determining the dependence of transition rates on the interaction energy (and temperature) for the general mathematical model, and the Lotka-type model, in particular. By means of Monte Carlo computer simulations, we have studied the impact of diffusion (with and without energetic interactions between reactants) on oscillatory properties of the A+B-->2B reaction. The diffusion leads to a desynchronization of oscillations and a subsequent decrease of oscillation amplitude. The energetic interaction between reactants has a dual effect depending on the type of mobile reactants. In the limiting case of mobile reactants B the repulsion results in a decrease of amplitudes. However, these amplitudes increase if reactants A are mobile and repulse each other. A simplified interpretation of the obtained results is given.