skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Density functional theory studies of HCOOH decomposition on Pd(111)

Journal Article · · Surface Science
 [1];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI (United States)

Here, the investigation of formic acid (HCOOH) decomposition on transition metal surfaces is important to derive useful insights for vapor phase catalysis involving HCOOH and for the development of direct HCOOH fuel cells (DFAFC). Here we present the results obtained from periodic, self-consistent, density functional theory (DFT-GGA) calculations for the elementary steps involved in the gas-phase decomposition of HCOOH on Pd(111). Accordingly, we analyzed the minimum energy paths for HCOOH dehydrogenation to CO2 + H2 and dehydration to CO + H2O through the carboxyl (COOH) and formate (HCOO) intermediates. Our results suggest that HCOO formation is easier than COOH formation, but HCOO decomposition is more difficult than COOH decomposition, in particular in presence of co-adsorbed O and OH species. Therefore, both paths may contribute to HCOOH decomposition. CO formation goes mainly through COOH decomposition.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Institute for Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations (IACT); Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Contributing Organization:
EMSL, a National scientific user facility at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL); the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL); and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Grant/Contract Number:
FG02-05ER15731; AC02-06CH11357; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1406902
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1373614
Journal Information:
Surface Science, Vol. 650, Issue C; ISSN 0039-6028
Publisher:
ElsevierCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 61 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (62)

Linear free energy relationships for C1-oxygenate decomposition on transition metal surfaces journal January 1991
Integrated Catalytic Conversion of γ-Valerolactone to Liquid Alkenes for Transportation Fuels journal February 2010
Valeric Biofuels: A Platform of Cellulosic Transportation Fuels journal June 2010
Performance characterization of Pd/C nanocatalyst for direct formic acid fuel cells journal June 2005
Surface science studies of model fuel cell electrocatalysts journal April 2002
Anode Poisoning Study in Direct Formic Acid Fuel Cells journal January 2009
Palladium in fuel cell catalysis journal January 2009
Direct formic acid fuel cell portable power system for the operation of a laptop computer journal November 2006
Catalysts for direct formic acid fuel cells journal April 2003
A miniature air breathing direct formic acid fuel cell journal April 2004
Recent advances in direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFC) journal July 2008
Electro-oxidation of methanol and formic acid on PtRu and PtAu for direct liquid fuel cells journal December 2006
Formic acid oxidation on Pdad + Pt(100) and Pdad + Pt(111) electrodes journal October 1994
Application of In-situ Attenuated Total Reflection-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for the Understanding of Complex Reaction Mechanism and Kinetics: Formic Acid Oxidation on a Pt Film Electrode at Elevated Temperatures journal May 2006
Kinetics and Mechanism of the Electrooxidation of Formic Acid—Spectroelectrochemical Studies in a Flow Cell journal January 2006
Kinetic Isotope Effects in Complex Reaction Networks: Formic Acid Electro-Oxidation journal February 2007
Bridge-Bonded Formate:  Active Intermediate or Spectator Species in Formic Acid Oxidation on a Pt Film Electrode? journal December 2006
Preparation of Pt-Pd catalysts for direct formic acid fuel cell and their characteristics journal May 2007
The oxidation of formic acid at noble metal electrodes journal May 1973
The oxidation of formic acid at noble metal electrodes Part III. Intermediates and mechanism on platinum electrodes journal July 1973
Structural Effects of Electrochemical Oxidation of Formic Acid on Single Crystal Electrodes of Palladium journal June 2006
Electrocatalysis of Pd + Au alloy electrodes journal February 1989
The electro-oxidation of formic acid on Pt–Pd single crystal bimetallic surfaces journal January 2003
From HCOOH to CO at Pd Electrodes: A Surface-Enhanced Infrared Spectroscopy Study journal September 2011
The structure of formate species on Pd(111) calculated by density functional theory and determined using low energy electron diffraction journal January 2005
Electrocatalytic properties of Au(111)-Pd quasi-single-crystal film electrodes as probed by ATR-SEIRAS journal November 2006
Surface-enhanced IR absorption on platinum nanoparticles: an application to real-time monitoring of electrocatalytic reactions journal June 2002
Potential Oscillations in Galvanostatic Electrooxidation of Formic Acid on Platinum:  A Time-Resolved Surface-Enhanced Infrared Study journal December 2005
Current Oscillations during Formic Acid Oxidation on a Pt Electrode: Insight into the Mechanism by Time-Resolved IR Spectroscopy journal September 2005
Mechanistic Study of Electrocatalytic Oxidation of Formic Acid at Platinum in Acidic Solution by Time-Resolved Surface-Enhanced Infrared Absorption Spectroscopy journal August 2006
EMIRS studies of formic acid electrooxidation on Pd, Au and Pd + Au alloys journal January 1992
Comparative Theoretical Study of Adsorption and Dehydrogenation of Formic Acid, Hydrazine and Isopropanol on Pd(111) Surface journal January 2011
New mechanism of the direct pathway for formic acid oxidation on Pd(111) journal December 2014
Theoretical Analysis of Transition-Metal Catalysts for Formic Acid Decomposition journal March 2014
Insights into the Preference of CO 2 Formation from HCOOH Decomposition on Pd Surface: A Theoretical Study journal October 2012
Origin of the Overpotential for Oxygen Reduction at a Fuel-Cell Cathode journal November 2004
E LECTRONIC S TRUCTURE AND C ATALYSIS ON M ETAL S URFACES journal October 2002
Competitive Paths for Methanol Decomposition on Pt(111) journal March 2004
A First-Principles Study of Methanol Decomposition on Pt(111) journal June 2002
Insight into Microscopic Reaction Pathways in Heterogeneous Catalysis journal October 2000
Catalytic Water Formation on Platinum:  A First-Principles Study journal May 2001
Special Points in the Brillouin Zone journal December 1973
Implementation of gradient-corrected exchange-correlation potentials in Car-Parrinello total-energy calculations journal August 1994
Trends in Formic Acid Decomposition on Model Transition Metal Surfaces: A Density Functional Theory study journal November 2014
A new technique to calculate steepest descent paths in flexible polyatomic systems journal January 1990
Reversible work transition state theory: application to dissociative adsorption of hydrogen journal February 1995
A climbing image nudged elastic band method for finding saddle points and minimum energy paths journal December 2000
A first-principles study of surface and subsurface H on and in Ni(111): diffusional properties and coverage-dependent behavior journal August 2003
Mechanism of the Water Gas Shift Reaction on Pt:  First Principles, Experiments, and Microkinetic Modeling journal March 2008
Structure Sensitivity of Methanol Electrooxidation on Transition Metals journal October 2009
Dissociative adsorption of H2 on the Pd(111) surface journal May 1997
Mechanistic Studies of Water–Gas-Shift Reaction on Transition Metals journal September 2011
XPS, UPS and thermal desorption studies of the reactions of formaldehyde and formic acid with the Cu(110) surface journal January 1981
A vibrational study of formic acid interaction with clean and oxygen-covered silver (110) surfaces journal April 1981
Formic acid decomposition from clean and oxidized nickel/iron (100) alloy surfaces journal March 1981
Thermal desorption study of formic acid decomposition on a clean Cu(110) surface journal January 1980
Influence of oxygen and pH on the selective oxidation of ethanol on Pd catalysts journal March 2013
The role of long-lived oxygen precursors on AuM alloys (M = Ni, Pd, Pt) in CO oxidation journal January 2011
CO oxidation on transition metal surfaces: reaction rates from first principles journal February 2002
A molecular beam investigation of the catalytic oxidation of CO on Pd (111) journal January 1978
Density Functional Theory Comparison of Water Dissociation Steps on Cu, Au, Ni, Pd, and Pt journal April 2009
Partial and complete reduction of O2 by hydrogen on transition metal surfaces journal September 2010

Cited By (6)

DFT and microkinetic investigation of methanol synthesis via CO 2 hydrogenation on Ni(111)-based surfaces journal January 2019
Van der Waals density functional study of formic acid adsorption and decomposition on Cu(111) journal April 2019
Structure Sensitivity of Formic Acid Electrooxidation on Transition Metal Surfaces: A First-Principles Study journal January 2018
Electrocatalytic Activities towards the Electrochemical Oxidation of Formic Acid and Oxygen Reduction Reactions over Bimetallic, Trimetallic and Core–Shell-Structured Pd-Based Materials journal March 2019
N-Doped graphene-supported PdCu nanoalloy as efficient catalyst for reducing Cr( vi ) by formic acid journal January 2018
Tuning Adsorption Energies and Reaction Pathways by Alloying: PdZn versus Pd for CO 2 Hydrogenation to Methanol journal August 2020