A density functional theory study of H2S decomposition on the (111) surfaces of model Pd-alloys

In this work, we report density functional theory calculations exploring H2S dissociation on the (111) surfaces of Pd, Cu, Ag, Au, and various bimetallic surfaces consisting of those metals. To understand the contributions of lattice strain and electronic ligand effects, the thermodynamics of each elementary dissociation step were explored on model bimetallic surfaces, including PdMPd sandwiches and Pd pseudomorphic overlayers, as well as strained Pd(111) surfaces and homogeneous Pd3M alloys. Sulfuric (H2S, SH, and S) adsorption energies were found to correlate very well with lattice constant, which can be explained by the strong correlation of the lattice constant with d-band center, Fermi energy, and density of states at the Fermi level for strained Pd(111) surfaces. Compressing the Pd lattice shifts the d-band center away from the Fermi level, lowers the Fermi energy, and reduces the density of d-states at the Fermi level. All three effects likely contribute to the destabilization of sulfuric adsorption on Pd alloys. Introducing ligand effects was found to alter the distribution of the d-states and shift the Fermi level, which eliminates the correlation of the d-band center with the density of states at the Fermi level and the Fermi energy. As a result, the d-band center by itself is a poor metric of the H2S reaction energetics for bimetallic surfaces. Furthermore, combining strain with ligand effects was found to lead to unpredictable alterations of the d-band. Therefore, adsorption of H2S, SH, and S on PdMPd surfaces do not accurately predict adsorption on Pd3M surfaces.