Innenrücktitelbild: Elucidation of Pathways for NO Electroreduction on Pt(111) from First Principles (Angew. Chem. 28/2015)

Inside Back Cover: Elucidation of Pathways for NO Electroreduction on Pt(111) from First Principles (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 28/2015)

Atomistic Insights into Nitrogen-Cycle Electrochemistry: A Combined DFT and Kinetic Monte Carlo Analysis of NO Electrochemical Reduction on Pt(100)

Electrocatalytic denitrification is a promising technology for the removal of NOx species in groundwater. However, a lack of understanding of the molecular pathways that control the overpotential and product distribution have limited the development of practical electrocatalysts, and additional atomic-level insights are needed to advance this field. Adsorbed NO has been identified as a key intermediate in the NOx electroreduction network, and the elementary steps by which it decomposes to NH4+, N2, NH3OH+, or N2O remain a subject of debate. Herein, we report a combined density functional theory (DFT) and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) study of this reaction on Pt(100), a catalytic surface that i…

Elucidation of Pathways for NO Electroreduction on Pt(111) from First Principles

The mechanism of nitric oxide electroreduction on Pt(111) is investigated using a combination of first principles calculations and electrokinetic rate theories. Barriers for chemical cleavage of N-O bonds on Pt(111) are found to be inaccessibly high at room temperature, implying that explicit electrochemical steps, along with the aqueous environment, play important roles in the experimentally observed formation of ammonia. Use of explicit water models, and associated determination of potential-dependent barriers based on Bulter-Volmer kinetics, demonstrate that ammonia is produced through a series of water-assisted protonation and bond dissociation steps at modest voltages (0.3 V). In addit…