Towards a specific reaction parameter density functional for reactive scattering of H2 from Pd(111)

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Recently, an implementation of the specific reaction parameter (SRP) approach to density functional theory (DFT) was used to study several reactive scattering experiments of H2 on Cu(111). It was possible to obtain chemical accuracy (1 kcal/mol ≈ 4.2 kJ/mol), and therefore, accurately model this paradigmatic example of activated H2 dissociation on a metal surface. In this work, the SRP-DFT methodology is applied to the dissociation of hydrogen on a Pd(111) surface, in order to test whether the SRP-DFT approach is also applicable to non-activated H2-metal systems. In the calculations, the Born-Oppenheimer static surface approximations are used. A comparison to molecular beam sticking experiments, performed at incidence energies ≥125 meV, on H2 + Pd(111) suggested the PBE-vdW [where the Perdew, Burke, and Ernzerhof (PBE) correlation is replaced by van der Waals correlation] functional as a candidate SRP density functional describing the reactive scattering of H2 on Pd(111). Unfortunately, quantum dynamics calculations are not able to reproduce the molecular beam sticking results for incidence energies <125 meV. From a comparison to initial state-resolved (degeneracy averaged) sticking probabilities it seems clear that for H2 + Pd(111) dynamic trapping and steering effects are important, and that these effects are not yet well modeled with the potential energy surfaces considered here. Applying the SRP-DFT method to systems where H2 dissociation is non-activated remains difficult. It is suggested that a density functional that yields a broader barrier distribution and has more non-activated pathways than PBE-vdW (i.e., non-activated dissociation at some sites but similarly high barriers at the high energy end of the spectrum) should allow a more accurate description of the available experiments. Finally, it is suggested that new and better characterized molecular beam sticking experiments be done on H2 + Pd(111), to facilitate the development of a more accurate theoretical description of this system.