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

Title: An electronic structure study of H[sub 2] and CH[sub 4] interactions with MgO and Li-doped MgO clusters

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics; (United States)
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.465899· OSTI ID:6219563
;  [1];  [2]
  1. Institute for Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444 (Japan)
  2. Pacific Northwest Laboratory, MSIN K1-90, Richland, Washington 99352 (United States)

An [ital ab] [ital initio] study is presented concerning the chemisorption of hydrogen on a model of the (100) surface of MgO and Li-doped MgO. The local surface environment was modeled employing cubic and tetragonal clusters composed of 8 and 12 atoms, respectively. The lattice constant for the clusters was fixed at the experimentally determined value for bulk MgO and the geometry of the adsorbate was optimized at the unrestricted Hartree--Fock (UHF) level of theory. Correlation energy was treated at the second-order unrestricted Moller--Plesset (UMP2) level at the UHF optimized geometry. It was found that H[sub 2] undergoes heterolytic dissociation at neighboring three-coordinated Mg and O sites (denoted Mg[sub 3[ital c]] and O[sub 3[ital c]]) in MgO with activation energies of 4.2 and 2.4 kcal/mol at the UHF and UMP2 levels, respectively. Li-doped MgO did not support heterolytic dissociation at neighboring Mg and O sites. Instead H[sub 2] was found to dissociate homolytically without barrier at two O[sub 3[ital c]] sites and to undergo hydrogen atom abstraction at O[sub 3[ital c]] and O[sub 4[ital c]] sites. At the UHF/UMP2 level, it was found that at O[sub 3[ital c]] sites, abstraction occurs with a 17.9/3.0 kcal/mol barrier, and at O[sub 4[ital c]] sites, abstraction occurs with a 15.7/0.6 kcal/mol activation energy.

DOE Contract Number:
AC06-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
6219563
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics; (United States), Vol. 99:8; ISSN 0021-9606
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English