Surface Tension Effects on the Reactivity of Metal Nanoparticles

Authors: 
Lin Li, Frank Abild-Pedersen, Jeff Greeley, Jens K. Nørskov
Year of publication: 
2015
Journal: 
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

We present calculated adsorption energies of oxygen on gold and platinum clusters with up to 923 atoms (3 nm diameter) using density functional theory. We find that surface tension of the clusters induces a compression, which weakens the bonding of adsorbates compared with the bonding on extended surfaces. The effect is largest for close- packed surfaces and almost nonexistent on the more reactive steps and edges. The effect is largest at low coverage and decreases, even changing sign, at higher coverages where the strain changes from compressive to tensile. Quantum size effects also influence adsorption energies but only below a critical size of 1.5 nm for platinum and 2.5 nm for gold. We develop a model to describe the strain-induced size effects on adsorption energies, which is able to describe the influence of surface structure, adsorbate, metal, and coverage.

Funding sources: 

News and Highlights

Modeling surface tension effects for metal clusters
Scientific Highlights - September 17, 2015