Open AccessChemically Accurate Simulation of a Polyatomic Molecule-Metal Surface Reaction
Author(s) -
Francesco Nattino,
Davide Migliorini,
GeertJan Kroes,
Eric Dombrowski,
Eric A. High,
Daniel R. Killelea,
A. L. Utz
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the journal of physical chemistry letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.563
H-Index - 203
ISSN - 1948-7185
DOI - 10.1021/acs.jpclett.6b01022
Subject(s) - polyatomic ion , dissociation (chemistry) , molecule , chemistry , density functional theory , chemical physics , computational chemistry , reaction dynamics , molecular dynamics , ab initio , catalysis , metal , organic chemistry
Although important to heterogeneous catalysis, the ability to accurately model reactions of polyatomic molecules with metal surfaces has not kept pace with developments in gas phase dynamics. Partnering the specific reaction parameter (SRP) approach to density functional theory with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) extends our ability to model reactions with metals with quantitative accuracy from only the lightest reactant, H2, to essentially all molecules. This is demonstrated with AIMD calculations on CHD3 + Ni(111) in which the SRP functional is fitted to supersonic beam experiments, and validated by showing that AIMD with the resulting functional reproduces initial-state selected sticking measurements with chemical accuracy (4.2 kJ/mol ≈ 1 kcal/mol). The need for only semilocal exchange makes our scheme computationally tractable for dissociation on transition metals.