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How absorbed hydrogen affects catalytic activity of transition metals


How absorbed hydrogen affects catalytic activity of transition metals

H.A. Aleksandrov, S.M. Kozlov, S. Schauermann, G.N. Vayssilov, K.M. Neyman

Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 53 (2014) 13371.

 2014-line2-e-250x200

Understanding hydrogenation on transition metals: Subsurface hydrogen, Hsub, is shown to significantly influence the stability and the reactivity of the adsorbed hydrogen on transition metals in two different ways. Very surprisingly, density functional calculations on a representative reaction, ethyl hydrogenation, show that it is accelerated on Pd and Pt, but slowed down on Ni and Rh in the presence of Hsub.