The Role of Electronic Excitations on Chemical Reaction Dynamics at Metal, Semiconductor and Nanoparticle Surfaces
- Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
Chemical reactions are often facilitated and steered when carried out on solid surfaces, essential for applications such as heterogeneous catalysis, solar energy conversion, corrosion, materials processing, and many others. A critical factor that can determine the rates and pathways of chemical reactions at surfaces is the efficiency and specificity of energy transfer; how fast does energy move around and where does it go? For reactions on insulator surfaces energy transfer generally moves in and out of vibrations of the adsorbed molecule and the underlying substrate. By contrast, on metal surfaces, metallic nanoparticles and semiconductors, another pathway for energy flow opens up, excitation and de-excitation of electrons. This so-called “nonadiabatic” mechanism often dominates the transfer of energy and can directly impact the course of a chemical reaction. Conventional computational methods such as molecular dynamics simulation do not account for this nonadiabatic behavior. The current DOE-BES funded project has focused on developing the underlying theoretical foundation and the computational methodology for the prediction of nonadiabatic chemical reaction dynamics at surfaces. The research has successfully opened up new methodology and new applications for molecular simulation. In particular, over the last three years, the “Electronic Friction” theory, pioneered by the PI, has now been developed into a stable and accurate computational method that is sufficiently practical to allow first principles “on-the-fly” simulation of chemical reaction dynamics at metal surfaces.
- Research Organization:
- Yale Univ., New Haven, CT (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG02-05ER15677
- OSTI ID:
- 1362289
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-YALE-ER15677
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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