Ab initio investigation of the atomistic descriptors in the activation of small molecules on 3d transition-metal 13-atom clusters: The example of H2, CO, H2O, and CO2.

The identification of the most important descriptors that drive the activation CO2 on transition-metal (TM) catalysts is a crucial step toward the conversion of CO2 into value-added chemicals; however, our atomistic understanding is far from satisfactory. Thus, aiming at the potential use of TM clusters in the conversion of CO2, we report density functional theory calculations of CO2, CO, H2O, and H2 adsorption on TM13 clusters (TM = Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu). Among the descriptors to evaluate the activation of the studied molecules, we found that the bond lengths increase, angles decrease, and their energetic variations upon the adsorption are the most important ones. From the structural response in anionic gas-phase molecules, the charge transfer toward CO2 and CO is pointed as relevant in their activation, and our results and analyses suggest that the adsorption on 3d TM13 clusters promote this charge donation process, decreasing in the order Fe13 > Co13 > Ni13 > Cu13. For CO2 and CO on Cu13, the activation was observed for highest energy configurations, indicating that is necessarily an additional driving force to occur the molecular activation on this material. Also, energetic parameters, adsorption energy, and interaction energy indicated that the strength of the adsorption is not necessarily proportional to the activation; it is difficult to point out these parameters as descriptors. Our results also provide interesting insights about steps of the CO2 reduction mechanism within the context of the modified Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.