Ab initio study of the reaction of H2 with an AuPt3 cluster

Abstract

The study of the interaction of a pyramidal tetramer of AuPt3 with H2 is carried out by means of Hartree-Fock self-consistent field (SCF) calculations using relativistic effective core potentials and multiconfigurational SCF plus multireference variational and perturbational on second-order Moller-Plesset configuration interaction calculations. The AuPt3-H2 interaction was carried out in C(s) symmetry. The three lowest electronic states X 2A", A 2A', and a 4A' of the bare cluster were considered in order to study this interaction. The AuPt3+H2 reaction by a Pt vertex shows that AuPt3 cluster in the three lowest-lying electronic states can spontaneously capture and dissociate the H2 molecule. While, by the AuPt2 face side, the AuPt3 cluster only in the A 2A' electronic state can capture and dissociate the H2 molecule after surmounting a small energy barrier. For the Au vertex, this cluster in the three electronic states can also spontaneously capture and dissociate the H2 molecule. On the other hand, by the Pt3 face side, the AuPt3 cluster is able to capture and dissociate the H2 molecule after surmounting energy barriers, where the AuPt3 (X 2A" and 4A'-H2 adsorption are slightly activated.