Hydrogen-assisted versus hydroxyl-assisted CO dissociation over Co-doped Cu(111): A DFT study

First principle based density functional theory (DFT) was used to calculate the step-by-step hydrogenation and dissociation reaction network of carbon monoxide (CO) over Co-doped Cu(111) surface as a model for understanding the lateral interaction of surface hydroxyl species (OH) on these reactions. We discussed the C-O bond length and the adsorption energy changes of reaction intermediates under different adsorption circumstances for purpose of making out the effect of surface hydroxyl on the reaction selectivity. Reaction intermediates co-adsorbed with H atom and hydroxyl could undergo H-assisted or OH-assisted routes. The calculations show that the OH-assisted route prefers with the formation of COH, CHOH and CH2OH while general H-assisted route prefers with the formation of HCO, CH2O and CH3O. Considering the rather low activation barrier of COH, CHOH and CH2OH to form CHx, the existence of hydroxyl on the surface is in favor of boosting the CHx and suppressing the methanol. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.