Structure sensitivity of CO oxidation on Co3O4: a DFT study

Abstract

The reaction mechanism of CO oxidation on the Co(3)O(4) (110) and Co(3)O(4) (111) surfaces is investigated by means of spin-polarized density functional theory (DFT) within the GGA+U framework. Adsorption situation and complete reaction cycles for CO oxidation are clarified. The results indicate that 1) the U value can affect the calculated energetic result significantly, not only the absolute adsorption energy but also the trend in adsorption energy; 2) CO can directly react with surface lattice oxygen atoms (O(2f)/O(3f)) to form CO(2) via the Mars-van Krevelen reaction mechanism on both (110)-B and (111)-B; 3) pre-adsorbed molecular O(2) can enhance CO oxidation through the channel in which it directly reacts with molecular CO to form CO(2) [O(2)(a)+CO(g)→CO(2)(g)+O(a)] on (110)-A/(111)-A; 4) CO oxidation is a structure-sensitive reaction, and the activation energy of CO oxidation follows the order of Co(3)O(4) (111)-A(0.78 eV)>Co(3)O(4) (111)-B (0.68 eV)>Co(3)O(4) (110)-A (0.51 eV)>Co(3)O(4) (110)-B (0.41 eV), that is, the (110) surface shows higher reactivity for CO oxidation than the (111) surface; 5) in addition to the O(2f), it was also found that Co(3+) is more active than Co(2+), so both O(2f) and Co(3+) control the catalytic activity of CO oxidation on Co(3)O(4), as opposed to a previous DFT study which concluded that either Co(3+) or O(2f) is the active site.