0000000000992396
AUTHOR
Andrey Bazhenov
Understanding Structure and Stability of Monoclinic Zirconia Surfaces from First-Principles Calculations
Under the water-rich pre-treatment and/or reaction conditions, structure and chemistry of the monoclinic zirconia surfaces are strongly influenced by oxygen vacancies and incorporated water. Here, we report a combined first-principles and atomistic thermodynamics study on the structure and stability of selected surfaces of the monoclinic zirconia. Our results indicate that among the studied surfaces, the most stable (111) surface is the least vulnerable towards oxygen vacancies in contrast to the less stable (011) and (101) surfaces, where formation of oxygen vacancies is energetically more favorable. Furthermore, we present a vigorous, systematic screening of water incorporation onto the s…
Unraveling the prominent role of the Rh/ZrO2-interface in the water-gas shift reaction via a first principles microkinetic study
The industrially important water–gas-shift (WGS) reaction is a complex network of competing elementary reactions in which the catalyst is a multicomponent system consisting of distinct domains. Herein, we have combined density functional theory calculations with microkinetic modeling to explore the active phase, kinetics, and reaction mechanism of the WGS over the Rh–ZrO2 interface. We have explicitly considered the support and metal and their interface and find that the Rh–ZrO2 interface is far more active toward WGS than Rh(111) facets, which are susceptible to CO poisoning. CO2 forming on the zirconia support rapidly transforms into formate. These findings demonstrate the central role of…
Globally Optimized Equilibrium Shapes of Zirconia-Supported Rh and Pt Nanoclusters : Insights into Site Assembly and Reactivity
Metal−support interfaces form an active site for many important catalytic reactions. The modeling of these interfacial sites calls for approximations to set up a structure model, which in turn may significantly have an impact on studied chemistry and obtained atomistic understanding. Herein, we have employed a density functional theory-based genetic approach to obtain globally optimized nanostructures for Rh and Pt clusters on a ZrO2 support. The analysis of the obtained structures shows that Rh clusters take more compact shapes, whereas Pt prefers elongated and low-symmetry structures. We find that metal−oxide perimeter sites are structurally different, presenting varying Pt and Rh coordin…
DFT Prediction of Enhanced Reducibility of Monoclinic Zirconia upon Rhodium Deposition
Oxides are an important class of materials and are widely used, for example, as supports in heterogeneous catalysis. In a number of industrial catalytic processes, oxide supports actively participate in chemical transformations by releasing lattice oxygen anions. While this is intuitively understood for reducible oxides, the reducibility of irreducible oxides may be modified via nanoengineering or upon inclusion of foreign species. Our calculations predict that the ability of irreducible monoclinic zirconia to release oxygen improves substantially upon deposition of rhodium. Through a comprehensive screening of Rh/ZrO2 with different size of the rhodium species, we find that a Rh adatom and…