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

Title: Many-body dispersion effects in the binding of adsorbates on metal surfaces

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4922688· OSTI ID:22490878
 [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Department of Chemistry, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 (United States)
  2. Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, D-14195 Berlin (Germany)

A correct description of electronic exchange and correlation effects for molecules in contact with extended (metal) surfaces is a challenging task for first-principles modeling. In this work, we demonstrate the importance of collective van der Waals dispersion effects beyond the pairwise approximation for organic–inorganic systems on the example of atoms, molecules, and nanostructures adsorbed on metals. We use the recently developed many-body dispersion (MBD) approach in the context of density-functional theory [Tkatchenko et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 236402 (2012) and Ambrosetti et al., J. Chem. Phys. 140, 18A508 (2014)] and assess its ability to correctly describe the binding of adsorbates on metal surfaces. We briefly review the MBD method and highlight its similarities to quantum-chemical approaches to electron correlation in a quasiparticle picture. In particular, we study the binding properties of xenon, 3,4,9,10-perylene-tetracarboxylic acid, and a graphene sheet adsorbed on the Ag(111) surface. Accounting for MBD effects, we are able to describe changes in the anisotropic polarizability tensor, improve the description of adsorbate vibrations, and correctly capture the adsorbate–surface interaction screening. Comparison to other methods and experiment reveals that inclusion of MBD effects improves adsorption energies and geometries, by reducing the overbinding typically found in pairwise additive dispersion-correction approaches.

OSTI ID:
22490878
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 143, Issue 10; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-9606
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English