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Title: Scaling relationships and theory for vibrational frequencies of adsorbates on transition metal surfaces

Journal Article · · Nature Communications

Adsorbate vibrational excitations are an important fingerprint of molecule/surface interactions, affecting temperature contributions to the free energy and impacting reaction rate and equilibrium constants. Furthermore, vibrational spectra aid in identifying species and adsorption sites present in experimental studies. Despite their importance, knowledge of how adsorbate frequencies scale across materials is lacking. Here, by combining previously reported experimental data and our own density-functional theory calculations, we reveal linear correlations between vibrational frequencies of adsorbates on transition metal surfaces. Through effective-medium theory, linear muffin-tin orbital theory, and the d-band model, we rationalize the squares of the frequencies to be fundamentally linear in their scaling across transition metal surfaces. We identify the adsorbate-binding energy as a descriptor for certain molecular vibrations and rigorously relate errors in frequencies to errors in adsorption energies. Here, we also discuss the impact of scaling on surface thermochemistry and adsorbate coverage.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Catalysis Center for Energy Innovation (CCEI)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0001004
OSTI ID:
1470091
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 8, Issue 1; Related Information: CCEI partners with the University of Delaware (lead); Brookhaven National Laboratory; California Institute of Technology; Columbia University; University of Delaware; Lehigh University; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of Minnesota; Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; University of Pennsylvania; Princeton University; Rutgers University; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 20 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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