Unusual dissociative adsorption of H2 over stoichiometric MgO thin film supported on molybdenum

Abstract

The dissociation of a hydrogen molecule on perfect MgO(001) films deposited on Mo(001) surface is investigated systematically using periodic density-functional theory (DFT) method. The unusual adsorption behavior of heterolytic dissociative hydrogen molecule at neighboring surface oxygen and surface magnesium, is clarified here. To our knowledge, this heterolytic dissociative state has never been found before on bulk MgO(001) or metal supported perfect MgO(001) surfaces (without low coordination sites). The results confirm that, in all cases, the heterolytic dissociation is much more favorable that homolytic dissociation both energetically and kinetically. The energy differences between two dissociative states are very large, in the range of 1.1eV–1.5eV for Mo supported 1ML–3ML oxide films, which inhibits, to a great extent, the homolytic dissociation in the respect of reaction thermodynamics. The energy barriers of heterolytic dissociation are about 0.5eV, much lower that the barrier of homolytic dissociation. The transformation reaction on thick films will be more endothermic. Passing through heterolytic dissociation state has significantly lowered the reaction heat and the energy barrier for obtaining homolytic dissociative structure, which makes the homolytic splitting of H2 easier on 2ML oxide films. The results provide a useful strategy for enhancing the reactivity of the nonreducible metal oxide.