Density Functional Theory and Reaction Kinetics Studies of the Water-Gas Shift Reaction on Pt-Re Catalysts

Periodic, self-consistent density functional theory calculations (DFT-GGA-PW91) on Pt(111) and Pt3Re(111) surfaces, reaction kinetics measurements, and microkinetic modeling are employed to study the mechanism of the water-gas shift (WGS) reaction over Pt and Pt-Re catalysts. The values of the reaction rates and reaction orders predicted by the model are in agreement with the ones experimentally determined; the calculated apparent activation energies are matched to within 6% of the experimental values. The primary reaction pathway is predicted to take place through adsorbed carboxyl (COOH) species, whereas formate (HCOO) is predicted to be a spectator species. We conclude that the clean Pt(111) is a good representation of the active site for the WGS reaction on Pt catalysts, whereas the active sites on the Pt-Re alloy catalyst likely contain partially oxidized metal ensembles.