Exploring the Interactions of Atomic Oxygen on Silver Clusters with Hydrogen

Abstract

The interactions between AgnO− (n=1−8) and H2 (or D2) were explored by combination of the mass spectroscopy experiments and density function theory (DFT) calculations. The experiments found that all oxygen atoms in AgnO− (n=1−8) are inert in the interactions with H2 or D2 at the low temperature of 150 K, which is in contrast to their high reactivity with CO under the same condition. These observations are parallel with the preferential oxidation (PROX) of CO in excess hydrogen catalyzed by dispersed silver species in the condensed phase. Possible reaction paths between AgnO− (n=1−8) and H2 were explored using DFT calculations. The results indicated that adsorption of H2 on any site of AgnO− (n=1−8) is extremely weak, and oxidation of H2 by any kind of oxygen in AgnO− (n=1−8) has an apparent barrier strongly dependent on the adsorption style of the “O”. These experiments and theoretical results about cluster reactions provided molecule-level insights into the activity of atomic oxygen on real silver catalysts.