First principles calculation is performed to study the co-adsorption behaviors of O2 and CO2 on δ-Pu(100) surface by using a slab model within the framework of density functional theory (DFT). The results demonstrate that the most favorable co-adsorption configurations are Tv-C4O7 and Tp1-C2O8, with adsorption energy of –17.296 eV and –23.131 eV for CO2-based and O2-based system, respectively. The C and O atoms mainly interact with the Pu surface atoms. Furthermore, the chemical bonding between C/O and Pu atom is mainly of ionic state, and the reaction mechanism is that C 2s, C 2p, O 2s, and O 2p orbitals overlap and hybridize with Pu 6p, Pu 6d, and Pu 5f orbital, resulting in the occurrence of new band structure. The adsorption and dissociation of CO2 molecule are obviously promoted by preferentially occupying adsorbed O atoms, therefore, a potential CO2 protection mechanism for plutonium-based materials is that in CO2 molecule there occurs complete dissociation of CO2 → C + O + O, then the dissociated C atom combines with O atom from O2 dissociation and produces CO, which will inhibit the O2 from further oxidizing Pu surface, and slow down the corrosion rate of plutonium-based materials.
The study of the reaction between plutonium and nitrogen is helpful to further understand the interaction between plutonium and air gas molecules. For the nitridation reaction of plutonium, there is no report on the microscopic reaction mechanism of this system at present. Therefore, the microcospic mechanism of gas phase reaction of Pu with N2 is studied in this paper based on the density functional theory (DFT) using different functions. In this paper, the geometry of stationary points on the potential energy surface is optimized. In addition, the transition states are verified by the frequency analysis method and the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) method. Finally, we obtain the reaction potential energy curve and the micro reaction pathways. The analysis of reaction mechanism shows that the reaction of Pu with N2 has two pathways. The pathway-1 (Pu+N2→R1→TS1→PuN2) has a T-shaped transition state and the pathway-2 (Pu+N2→R2→TS2→PuN+N) has a L-shaped transition state. Moreover, both transition states have only one virtual frequency. The energy analysis shows that pathway-1 is the main reaction pathway. The nature of the Pu-N bonding evolution along the pathways is studied by atoms in molecules (AIM) and electron localization function (ELF) topological approaches. In order to analyse the role of 5f orbital of plutonium atom in the reaction, the variation of density of state along the pathways is performed. The results show that the 5f orbital makes major contributions to the formation of Pu-N bonds. Meanwhile, the influence of different temperatures on the reaction rate is revealed by calculating the rate constants of the two reaction pathways.
The study of the reaction between plutonium and nitrogen is helpful to further understand the interaction between plutonium and air gas molecules. For the nitridation reaction of plutonium, there is no report on the microscopic reaction mechanism of this system at present. Therefore, the microcospic mechanism of gas phase reaction of Pu with N 2 is studied in this paper based on the density functional theory (DFT) using different functions. In this paper, the geometry of stationary points on the potential energy surface is optimized. In addition, the transition states are verified by the frequency analysis method and the intrinsic reaction coordinate (IRC) method. Finally, we obtain the reaction potential energy curve and the micro reaction pathways. The analysis of reaction mechanism shows that the reaction of Pu with N 2 has two pathways. The pathway-1 (Pu+N 2 →R1→TS1→PuN 2 ) has a T-shaped transition state and the pathway-2 (Pu+N 2 →R 2 →TS 2 →PuN+N) has a L-shaped transition state. Moreover, both transition states have only one virtual frequency. The energy analysis shows that pathway-1 is the main reaction pathway. The nature of the Pu-N bonding evolution along the pathways is studied by atoms in molecules (AIM) and electron localization function (ELF) topological approaches. In order to analyse the role of 5f orbital of plutonium atom in the reaction, the variation of density of state along the pathways is performed. The results show that the 5f orbital makes major contributions to the formation of Pu-N bonds. Meanwhile, the influence of different temperatures on the reaction rate is revealed by calculating the rate constants of the two reaction pathways.
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