Methanol steam re-forming, catalyzed by Pd/ZnO, is a potential hydrogen source for fuel cells, in particular in pollution-free vehicles. To contribute to the understanding of pertinent reaction mechanisms, density functional slab model studies on two competing decomposition pathways of adsorbed methoxide (CH(3)O) have been carried out, namely, dehydrogenation to formaldehyde and C-O bond breaking to methyl. For the (111) surfaces of Pd, Cu, and 1:1 Pd-Zn alloy, adsorption complexes of various reactants, intermediates, transition states, and products relevant for the decomposition processes were computationally characterized. On the surface of Pd-Zn alloy, H and all studied C-bound species were found to prefer sites with a majority of Pd atoms, whereas O-bound congeners tend to be located on sites with a majority of Zn atoms. Compared to Pd(111), the adsorption energy of O-bound species was calculated to be larger on PdZn(111), whereas C-bound moieties were less strongly adsorbed. C-H scission of CH(3)O on various substrates under study was demonstrated to proceed easier than C-O bond breaking. The energy barrier for the dehydrogenation of CH(3)O on PdZn(111) (113 kJ mol(-)(1)) and Cu(111) (112 kJ mol(-)(1)) is about 4 times as high as that on Pd(111), due to the fact that CH(3)O interacts more weakly with Pd than with PdZn and Cu surfaces. Calculated results showed that the decomposition of methoxide to formaldehyde is thermodynamically favored on Pd(111), but it is an endothermic process on PdZn(111) and Cu(111) surfaces.

Geometric parameters of binary ͑1:1͒ PdZn and PtZn alloys with CuAu-L1 0 structure were calculated with a density functional method. Based on the total energies, the alloys are predicted to feature equal formation energies. Calculated surface energies of PdZn and PtZn alloys show that ͑111͒ and ͑100͒ surfaces exposing stoichiometric layers are more stable than ͑001͒ and ͑110͒ surfaces comprising alternating Pd ͑Pt͒ and Zn layers. The surface energy values of alloys lie between the surface energies of the individual components, but they differ from their composition weighted averages. Compared with the pure metals, the valence d-band widths and the Pd or Pt partial densities of states at the Fermi level are dramatically reduced in PdZn and PtZn alloys. The local valence d-band density of states of Pd and Pt in the alloys resemble that of metallic Cu, suggesting that a similar catalytic performance of these systems can be related to this similarity in the local electronic structures.

Methanol steam reforming, catalyzed by Pd/ZnO (PdZn alloy), is a potential source of hydrogen for on-board fuel cells. CO has been reported to be a minor side product of methanol decomposition that occurs in parallel to methanol steam reforming on PdZn catalysts. However, fuel cells currently used in vehicles are very sensitive to CO poisoning. To contribute to the understanding of pertinent reaction mechanisms, we employed density functional slab model calculations to study the decomposition of formaldehyde, a key intermediate in methanol decomposition and steam reforming reactions, on planar surfaces of Pd, Cu, and PdZn as well as on a stepped surface of PdZn. The calculated activation energies indicate that dehydrogenation of formaldehyde is favorable on Pd(111), but unfavorable on Cu(111) and PdZn(111). On the stepped PdZn(221) surface, the dehydrogenation process was calculated to be more competitive to formaldehyde desorption than on PdZn(111). Thus, we ascribe the experimentally observed small amount of CO, formed during steam reforming of methanol on the Pd/ZnO catalyst, to occur at metallic Pd species of the catalyst or at defect sites of PdZn alloy.

On Pd(111), thermal activation of ethylene has been reported to yield ethylidyne. Using more approximate models, a plausible three-step mechanism, ethylene f vinyl f ethylidene f ethylidyne, was recently proposed for this process on the basis of DFT calculations. We employed more elaborate computational models and characterized the thermodynamics and kinetics of the mechanism of ethylene conversion to ethylidyne on Pd(111). We carried out density functional slab-model studies for three coverages of the adsorbate, 1/3, 1/4, and 1/9. The resulting refined potential energy landscape turned out to differ notably from that reported previously: our calculated barriers for the various elementary steps are significantly lower than those of previous studies, and we determined the overall process to be exothermic, in contrast to earlier computational results. We show that the three-step mechanism is thermodynamically and kinetically feasible on Pd(111), with the dehydrogenation of ethylene to vinyl being the rate-limiting step at all coverages considered. Direct conversion of ethylene to ethylidene is unlikely due to a very high barrier. Coverage effects have been found important. At high coverage, the rate-limiting first reaction barrier is ∼50 kJ mol -1 above the desorption energy of ethylene, whereas at low coverages the two energies become comparable.

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We review systematic experimental and theoretical efforts that explored formation, structure and reactivity of PdZn catalysts for methanol steam reforming, a material recently proposed to be superior to the industrially used Cu based catalysts. Experimentally, ordered surface alloys with a Pd : Zn ratio of approximately 1 : 1 were prepared by deposition of thin Zn layers on a Pd(111) surface and characterized by photoelectron spectroscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. The valence band spectrum of the PdZn alloy resembles closely the spectrum of Cu(111), in good agreement with the calculated density of states for a PdZn alloy of 1 : 1 stoichiometry. Among the issues studied with the help of density functional calculations are surface structure and stability of PdZn alloys and effects of Zn segregation in them, and the nature of the most likely water-related surface species present under the conditions of methanol steam reforming. Furthermore, a series of elementary reactions starting with the decomposition of methoxide, CH(3)O, along both C-H and C-O bond scission channels, on various surfaces of the 1 : 1 PdZn alloy [planar (111), (100) and stepped (221)] were quantified in detail thermodynamically and kinetically in comparison with the corresponding reactions on the surfaces Pd(111) and Cu(111). The overall surface reactivity of PdZn alloy was found to be similar to that of metallic Cu. Reactive methanol adsorption was also investigated by in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for pressures between 3 x 10(-8) and 0.3 mbar.

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