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Journal ArticleDOI

Why gold is the noblest of all the metals

Bjørk Hammer, +1 more
- 20 Jul 1995 - 
- Vol. 376, Iss: 6537, pp 238-240
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TLDR
In this paper, a simple surface reaction, the dissociation of H2 on the surface of gold and of three other metals (copper, nickel and platinum) that lie close to it in the periodic table, was studied.
Abstract
THE unique role that gold plays in society is to a large extent related to the fact that it is the most noble of all metals: it is the least reactive metal towards atoms or molecules at the interface with a gas or a liquid. The inertness of gold does not reflect a general inability to form chemical bonds, however—gold forms very stable alloys with many other metals. To understand the nobleness of gold, we have studied a simple surface reaction, the dissociation of H2 on the surface of gold and of three other metals (copper, nickel and platinum) that lie close to it in the periodic table. We present self-consistent density-functional calculations of the activation barriers and chemisorption energies which clearly illustrate that nobleness is related to two factors: the degree of filling of the antibonding states on adsorption, and the degree of orbital overlap with the adsorbate. These two factors, which determine both the strength of the adsorbate-metal interaction and the energy barrier for dissociation, operate together to the maxima] detriment of adsorbate binding and subsequent reactivity on gold.

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Citations
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Plasmonic-metal nanostructures for efficient conversion of solar to chemical energy

TL;DR: Plasmon-enhanced water splitting on composite photocatalysts containing semiconductor and plasmonic-metal building blocks is focused on, and recently reported plasMon-mediated photocatallytic reactions on plAsmonic nanostructures of noble metals are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Design of electrocatalysts for oxygen- and hydrogen-involving energy conversion reactions

TL;DR: The emphasis of this review is on the origin of the electrocatalytic activity of nanostructured catalysts toward a series of key clean energy conversion reactions by correlating the apparent electrode performance with their intrinsic electrochemical properties.
Journal ArticleDOI

Size- and support-dependency in the catalysis of gold

TL;DR: In this article, the adsorption properties and reactivities of gold are summarized in terms of their size dependency from bulk to fine particles, clusters and atoms, and the catalytic performances of gold markedly depend on dispersion, supports, and preparation methods.
Journal ArticleDOI

Towards the computational design of solid catalysts

TL;DR: The first steps towards using computational methods to design new catalysts are reviewed and how, in the future, such methods may be used to engineer the electronic structure of the active surface by changing its composition and structure are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Lattice-strain control of the activity in dealloyed core–shell fuel cell catalysts

TL;DR: It is shown how lattice strain can be used experimentally to tune the catalytic activity of dealloyed bimetallic nanoparticles for the oxygen-reduction reaction, a key barrier to the application of fuel cells and metal-air batteries.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Introduction to Solid State Physics

Charles Kittel, +1 more
- 01 Aug 1954 - 
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Introduction to solid state physics

TL;DR: In this paper, the Hartree-Fock Approximation of many-body techniques and the Electron Gas Polarons and Electron-phonon Interaction are discussed.
Journal ArticleDOI

Atoms, molecules, solids, and surfaces: Applications of the generalized gradient approximation for exchange and correlation.

TL;DR: A way is found to visualize and understand the nonlocality of exchange and correlation, its origins, and its physical effects as well as significant interconfigurational and interterm errors remain.
Journal ArticleDOI

Iterative minimization techniques for ab initio total-energy calculations: molecular dynamics and conjugate gradients

TL;DR: In this article, the authors describe recent technical developments that have made the total-energy pseudopotential the most powerful ab initio quantum-mechanical modeling method presently available, and they aim to heighten awareness of the capabilities of the method in order to stimulate its application to as wide a range of problems in as many scientific disciplines as possible.
Journal ArticleDOI

Multidimensional potential energy surface for H2 dissociation over Cu(111).

Abstract: We present ab initio density functional calculations within the generalized gradient approximation for ${\mathrm{H}}_{2}$ dissociating over Cu(111). The minimum barrier for dissociation is 0.5 eV and shows large corrugation within the unit cell and a strong dependence on the molecular orientation. Dissociation is predicted to depend strongly on translational, vibrational, and rotational degrees of freedom in accordance with experiment. We show that even for a noble metal, the $d$ electrons are important for the molecule-surface interaction.
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