Effects of water and electric field on atomic oxygen adsorption on Pt-Co alloys Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • Density functional theory is used to study the effect of atomic oxygen adsorption at various coverages with and without the presence of water on ordered and Pt-segregated PtCo surfaces. The strength of O adsorption, as well as surface reconstruction effects due to the adsorbate are strongly influenced by the presence of the oxygen-philic transition metal on the surface or subsurface. At high O coverage, buckling of the Co atom on PtCo surfaces is much smaller than that of Pt on Pt(1 1 1) surfaces, and buckling of Pt atoms on Pt-skin surfaces is negligible. Also, the effect of an electric field perpendicular to the surface on adsorbed water and atomic oxygen is investigated. Spontaneous water dissociation is not found on the ordered and segregated alloy surfaces within the entire applied electric field range (-0.51 to 0.51 V/). Water changes orientation under strong negative fields, switching from a metal-O to a metal-H interaction, and the effect is much more pronounced in the low-coordination sites of cluster models. 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

published proceedings

  • SURFACE SCIENCE

author list (cited authors)

  • Hirunsit, P., & Balbuena, P. B.

citation count

  • 20

complete list of authors

  • Hirunsit, Pussana||Balbuena, Perla B

publication date

  • January 2009