Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study
Abstract
Hydrogen bonding interactions alter the nanoscale reaction mechanisms of many chemistries. Yet, it remains unclear how they affect heterogeneously catalyzed decomposition of formic acid (FA), a reaction of intense interest since FA is a promising hydrogen carrier. In this work, we elucidate how hydrogen bonding affects the reaction mechanisms for FA decomposition on Cu(111) by combining first-principles density functional theory calculations to calculate reaction energetics, Latin-hypercube sampling to elucidate stable high-coverage adsorbate configurations, and coverage self-consistent mean-field microkinetic models to predict reaction kinetics. We demonstrate that hydrogen-bonded complexes of FA with formate (bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes) can play a dominant role in FA decomposition. Specifically, our first-principles calculations show that hydrogen bonding of FA with HCOO may stabilize the crucial monodentate HCOO intermediate and the transition states for HCOO decomposition, especially at low coverages. We predict that, depending on the reaction conditions, 40–80% of the reaction flux goes through pathways involving the bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes. Additionally, the active site for FA decomposition on Cu(111) involves a high coverage (~0.4 monolayers (ML)) of these complexes, which unexpectedly stabilize intermediates and transition states via van der Waals interactions. Our work provides molecular insights consistent with previous experimental observations on supported Cu/Al2O3 catalysts. Thismore »
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, WI (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1835133
- Grant/Contract Number:
- FG02-05ER15731; AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- ACS Catalysis
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2155-5435
- Publisher:
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; copper; hydrogen bonding; cocatalyst; formic acid decomposition; bimolecular mechanism; microkinetic modeling; density functional theory; coverage effects
Citation Formats
Chen, Benjamin J., Bhandari, Saurabh, and Mavrikakis, Manos. Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study. United States: N. p., 2021.
Web. doi:10.1021/acscatal.0c05695.
Chen, Benjamin J., Bhandari, Saurabh, & Mavrikakis, Manos. Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study. United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.0c05695
Chen, Benjamin J., Bhandari, Saurabh, and Mavrikakis, Manos. Wed .
"Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study". United States. https://doi.org/10.1021/acscatal.0c05695. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1835133.
@article{osti_1835133,
title = {Role of Hydrogen-bonded Bimolecular Formic Acid–Formate Complexes for Formic Acid Decomposition on Copper: A Combined First-Principles and Microkinetic Modeling Study},
author = {Chen, Benjamin J. and Bhandari, Saurabh and Mavrikakis, Manos},
abstractNote = {Hydrogen bonding interactions alter the nanoscale reaction mechanisms of many chemistries. Yet, it remains unclear how they affect heterogeneously catalyzed decomposition of formic acid (FA), a reaction of intense interest since FA is a promising hydrogen carrier. In this work, we elucidate how hydrogen bonding affects the reaction mechanisms for FA decomposition on Cu(111) by combining first-principles density functional theory calculations to calculate reaction energetics, Latin-hypercube sampling to elucidate stable high-coverage adsorbate configurations, and coverage self-consistent mean-field microkinetic models to predict reaction kinetics. We demonstrate that hydrogen-bonded complexes of FA with formate (bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes) can play a dominant role in FA decomposition. Specifically, our first-principles calculations show that hydrogen bonding of FA with HCOO may stabilize the crucial monodentate HCOO intermediate and the transition states for HCOO decomposition, especially at low coverages. We predict that, depending on the reaction conditions, 40–80% of the reaction flux goes through pathways involving the bimolecular FA–HCOO complexes. Additionally, the active site for FA decomposition on Cu(111) involves a high coverage (~0.4 monolayers (ML)) of these complexes, which unexpectedly stabilize intermediates and transition states via van der Waals interactions. Our work provides molecular insights consistent with previous experimental observations on supported Cu/Al2O3 catalysts. This paves the way toward the development of novel catalysts for FA decomposition as well as for other industrially important chemistries with intermediates capable of hydrogen bonding, such as ammonia electrooxidation and CO2 hydrogenation.},
doi = {10.1021/acscatal.0c05695},
journal = {ACS Catalysis},
number = 7,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2021},
month = {Wed Mar 24 00:00:00 EDT 2021}
}
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