CO adsorption mechanisms on transition metal surfaces and factors influencing the adsorption

CO adsorption on transition metal (TM) surfaces has been extensively studied. Compared to the "vertical adsorption" (CO⊥M) in which the C–O bond is normal to the surface with the C bonded to the surface, few studies are devoted to the "parallel mode" (CO||M) where the C–O bond is (near) parallel to the surface with both C and O atoms interacting with the surface. Here we report density functional calculations of CO adsorption on the stable surfaces of 27 TMs. The results show that CO adsorbs only in CO⊥M mode on IB, IIB, VIIB and VIII TMs while both CO⊥M and CO||M modes exist on IIIB to VIB TMs, with CO||M being more stable. Overlap population analysis reveals that the interactions between metal d AOs and O 2p AOs dominate the CO||M mode where the CO π bond is greatly weakened, resulting in significantly activated CO. The adsorption mode and adsorption energy can be tuned by ensemble effect, lattice strain and crystal structure, while the ligand effect is weak and is not able to change the adsorption mode of CO. The present work demonstrates that ensemble effect, lattice strain and crystal structure can be utilized to modify surface chemistry and promote catalytic performance effectively.