We study the adsorption dynamics of N 2 on the Fe(110) surface. Classical molecular dynamics calculations are performed on top of a six-dimensional potential energy surface calculated within density functional theory. Our results show that N 2 dissociation on this surface is a highly activated process that takes place along a very narrow reaction path with an energy barrier of around 1.1 eV, what explains the measured low reactivity of this system. By incorporating energy exchange with the lattice in the dynamics, we also study the non-dissociative molecular adsorption process. From the analysis of the potential energy surface, we observe the presence of two distinct N 2 adsorption wells. Our dynamics calculations show that the relative population of these adsorption sites varies with the incident energy of the molecule and the surface temperature. We find an activation energy of around 150 meV that prevents molecular adsorption under thermal and hypothermal N 2 gas exposure of the surface. This finding is also consistent with the available experimental information.

Water adsorption on a double-layer silicate film was studied by using infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy, thermal desorption spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy. Under vacuum conditions, small amounts of silanols (Si-OH) could only be formed upon deposition of an ice-like (amorphous solid water, ASW) film and subsequent heating to room temperature. Silanol coverage is considerably enhanced by low-energy electron irradiation of an ASW pre-covered silicate film. The degree of hydroxylation can be tuned by the irradiation parameters (beam energy, exposure) and the ASW film thickness. The results are consistent with a generally accepted picture that hydroxylation occurs through hydrolysis of siloxane (Si-O-Si) bonds in the silica network. Calculations using density functional theory show that this may happen on Si-O-Si bonds, which are either parallel (i.e., in the topmost silicate layer) or vertical to the film surface (i.e., connecting two silicate layers). In the latter case, the mechanism may additionally involve the reaction with a metal support underneath. The observed vibrational spectra are dominated by terminal silanol groups (ν(OD) band at 2763 cm(-1)) formed by hydrolysis of vertical Si-O-Si linkages. Film dehydroxylation fully occurs only upon heating to very high temperatures (∼ 1200 K) and is accompanied by substantial film restructuring, and even film dewetting upon cycling hydroxylation/dehydroxylation treatment.

We study the gas-surface dynamics of O 2 at Ag(111) with the particular objective to unravel whether electronic non-adiabatic effects are contributing to the experimentally established inertness of the surface with respect to oxygen uptake. We employ a first-principles divide and conquer approach based on an extensive density-functional theory mapping of the adiabatic potential energy surface (PES) along the six O 2 molecular degrees of freedom. Neural networks are subsequently used to interpolate these grid data to a continuous representation. The low computational cost with which forces are available from this PES representation allows then for a sufficiently large number of molecular dynamics trajectories to quantitatively determine the very low initial dissociative sticking coefficient at this surface. Already these adiabatic calculations yield dissociation probabilities close to the scattered experimental data. Our analysis shows that this low reactivity is governed by large energy barriers in excess of 1.1 eV very close to the surface. Unfortunately, these 6

To gain molecular level insights into the properties of certain functions and units of extended oxides/hydroxides, suitable molecular model compounds are needed. As an attractive route to access such compounds the trapping of early intermediates during the hydrolysis of suitable precursor compounds with the aid of stabilizing ligands is conceivable, which was tested for the aluminum(III)/water system. Indeed, trisilanols proved suitable trapping reagents: their presence during the hydrolysis of Al(i) Bu2 H in dependence on the amount of water used allowed for the isolation of tri- and octanuclear aluminum hydroxide cluster complexes [Al3 (μ2 -OH)3 (THF)3 (PhSi(OSiPh2 O)3 )2 ] (1) and [Al8 (μ3 -OH)2 (μ2 -OH)10 (THF)3 (p-anisylSi(OSiPh2 O)3 )4 ] (2). 1 can be regarded as the Al(OH)3 cyclic trimer, where six protons have been replaced by silyl residues. While 2 features a unique [Al8 (μ3 -OH)2 (μ2 -OH)10 ](12+) core. In contrast to most other known aggregates of this type, 1 and 2 can be readily prepared at reasonable scales, dissolve in common solvents, and retain an intact framework even in the presence of excessive amounts of water. This finding paves the way to future research addressing the reactivity of the individual functional groups.