Toward an understanding of the hydrogenation reaction of MO2 gas-phase clusters (M = Ti, Zr, and Hf).

A theoretical investigation using density functional theory (DFT) has been carried out in order to understand the molecular mechanism of dihydrogen activation by means of transition metal dioxides MO2 (M = Ti, Zr, and Hf) according to the following reaction: MO2 + H2 → MO + H2O. B3LYP/6-311++G(2df,2pd)/SDD methodology was employed considering two possible reaction pathways. As the first step hydrogen activation by M═O bonds yields to metal-oxo hydride intermediates O═MH(OH). This process is spontaneous for all metal dioxides, and the stability of the O═MH(OH) species depends on the transition metal center. Subsequently, the reaction mechanism splits into two paths: the first one takes place…