Recently, several forms of unsupported gold were shown to display a remarkable activity to catalyze oxidation reactions. Experimental evidence points to the crucial role of residual silver present in very small concentrations in these novel catalysts. We focus on the catalytic properties of nanoporous gold (np-Au) foams probed via CO and oxygen adsorption/co-adsorption. Experimental results are analyzed using theoretical models represented by the flat Au(111) and the kinked Au(321) slabs with Ag impurities. We show that Ag atoms incorporated into gold surfaces can facilitate the adsorption and dissociation of molecular oxygen on them. CO adsorbed on top of 6-fold coordinated Au atoms can in turn be stabilized by co-adsorbed atomic oxygen by up to 0.2 eV with respect to the clean unsubstituted gold surface. Our experiments suggest a linking of that most strongly bound CO adsorption state to the catalytic activity of np-Au. Thus, our results shed light on the role of silver admixtures in the striking catalytic activity of unsupported gold nanostructures.

The development of hybrid organic-inorganic perovskite solar cells is one of the most rapidly growing fields in the photovoltaic community and is on its way to challenge polycrystalline silicon and thin film technologies. High power conversion efficiencies can be achieved by simple processing with low cost. However, due to the limited long-term stability and environmental toxicity of lead in the prototypic CHNHPbI, there is a need to find alternative ABX constitutional combinations in order to promote commercialization. The Goldschmidt tolerance factor and the octahedral factor were found to be necessary geometrical concepts to evaluate which perovskite compounds can be formed. It was figured out that the main challenge lies in estimating an effective ionic radius for the molecular cation. We calculated tolerance factors and octahedral factors for 486 ABX monoammonium-metal-halide combinations, where the steric size of the molecular cation in the A-position was estimated concerning the total charge density. A thorough inquiry about existing mixed organic-inorganic perovskites was undertaken. Our results are in excellent agreement with the reported hybrid compounds and indicate the potential existence of 106 ABX combinations hitherto not discussed in the literature, giving hints for more intense research on prospective individual candidates.

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We extend our recently reported embedding theory [J. Chem. Phys. 110, 7677 (1999)] to calculate not only improved descriptions of ground states, but now also localized excited states in a periodically infinite condensed phase. A local region of the solid is represented by a small cluster for which high quality quantum chemical calculations are performed. The interaction of the cluster with the extended condensed phase is taken into account by an effective embedding potential. This potential is calculated by periodic density functional theory (DFT) and is used as a one-electron operator in subsequent cluster calculations. Among a variety of benchmark calculations, we investigate a CO molecule adsorbed on a Pd(111) surface. By performing complete active space self-consistent field, configuration interaction (CI), and Møller–Plesset perturbation theory of order n (MP-n), we not only were able to obtain accurate adsorption energies via local corrections to DFT, but also vertical excitation energies for an internal (52*) excitation within the adsorbed CO molecule. We demonstrate that our new scheme is an efficient and accurate approach for the calculation of local excited states in bulk metals and on metal surfaces. Additionally, a systematic means of improving locally on ground state properties is provided

We present the first ab initio prediction of localized electronic excited states in a periodically infinite condensed phase, a heretofore intractable goal. In particular, we examined local excitations within a CO molecule adsorbed on Pd(111). The calculation allows a configuration interaction treatment of a local region, while its interaction with the extended condensed phase is described via an embedding potential obtained from periodic density functional theory. Our work lays the foundation of a microscopic understanding of photochemistry and spectroscopy on metal surfaces.