Water dissociation on Ni(100) and Ni(111): Effect of surface temperature on reactivity

Water adsorption and dissociation on Ni(100) and Ni(111) surfaces are studied using density functional theory calculations. Water adsorbs on top site on both the surfaces, while H and OH adsorb on four fold hollow and three fold hollow (fcc) sites on Ni(100) and Ni(111), respectively. Transition states (TS) on both surfaces are identified using climbing image-nudged elastic band method. It is found that the barrier to dissociation on Ni(100) surface is slightly lower than that on Ni(111) surface. Dissociation on both the surfaces is exothermic, while the exothermicity on Ni(100) is large. To study the effect of lattice motion on the energy barrier, TS calculations are performed for various values of Q (lattice atom coordinate along the surface normal) and the change in the barrier height and position is determined. Calculations show that the energy barrier to reaction decreases with increasing Q and increases with decreasing Q on both the surfaces. Dissociation probability values at different surface temperatures are computed using semi-classical approximation. Results show that the influence of surface temperature on dissociation probability on the Ni(100) is significantly larger compared to that of Ni(111). Moreover, on Ni(100), a dramatic shift in energy barrier to lower incident energy values is observed with increasing surface temperature, while the shift is smaller in the case of Ni(111). (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.