Enzymes in nature efficiently catalyze chiral organic molecules by elaborately tuning the geometrical arrangement of atoms in the active site. However, enantioselective oxidation of organic molecules by heterogeneous electrocatalysts is challenging because of the difficulty in controlling the asymmetric structures of the active sites on the electrodes. Here, we show that the distribution of chiral kink atoms on high-index facets can be precisely manipulated even on single gold nanoparticles; and this enabled stereoselective oxidation of hydroxyl groups on various sugar molecules. We characterized the crystallographic orientation and the density of kink atoms and investigated their specific interactions with the glucose molecule due to the geometrical structure and surface electrostatic potential.

The electronic excitation occurring on adsorbates at ultrafast timescales from optical lasers that initiate surface chemical reactions is still an open question. Here, we report the ultrafast temporal evolution of x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) of a simple well-known adsorbate prototype system, namely carbon (C) atoms adsorbed on a nickel [Ni(100)] surface, following intense laser optical pumping at 400 nm. We observe ultrafast (∼100  fs) changes in both XAS and XES showing clear signatures of the formation of a hot electron-hole pair distribution on the adsorbate. This is followed by slower changes on a few picoseconds timescale, shown to be consistent with thermalization of the complete C/Ni system. Density functional theory spectrum simulations support this interpretation.

We report on carbon monoxide desorption and oxidation induced by 400 nm femtosecond laser excitation on the O/Ru(0001) surface probed by time-resolved x-ray absorption spectroscopy (TR-XAS) at the carbon K-edge. The experiments were performed under constant background pressures of CO (6 × 10⁻⁸ Torr) and O₂ (3 × 10⁻⁸ Torr). Under these conditions, we detect two transient CO species with narrow 2π* peaks, suggesting little 2π* interaction with the surface. Based on polarization measurements, we find that these two species have opposing orientations: (1) CO favoring a more perpendicular orientation and (2) CO favoring a more parallel orientation with respect to the surface. We also directly detect gas-phase CO₂ using a mass spectrometer and observe weak signatures of bent adsorbed CO₂ at slightly higher x-ray energies than the 2π* region. These results are compared to previously reported TR-XAS results at the O K-edge, where the CO background pressure was three times lower (2 × 10⁻⁸ Torr) while maintaining the same O₂ pressure. At the lower CO pressure, in the CO 2π* region, we observed adsorbed CO and a distribution of OC–O bond lengths close to the CO oxidation transition state, with little indication of gas-like CO. The shift toward “gas-like” CO species may be explained by the higher CO exposure, which blocks O adsorption, decreasing O coverage and increasing CO coverage. These effects decrease the CO desorption barrier through dipole–dipole interaction while simultaneously increasing the CO oxidation barrier.

Electrochemically driven CO2 reduction into alcohols and hydrocarbons is a topic of intense study. Photocatalytic approaches, which instead are powered by light, are also reported, but these generally rely on two-component catalysts and yield only moderately reduced products with a single carbon atom. In this report, we use density functional theory, including its linear-response time-dependent implementation, to investigate the feasibility of photocatalytically driving the dimerization of CO chemisorbed on Cu2O, a crucial step in the chemical conversion of CO2 into C-2 products, such as ethanol and ethylene. We find that CO dimerization into OCCO is greatly aided by the photoinduced population of a low-lying LUMO that is bonding with respect to the C-C bond of two adjacently chemisorbed CO molecules.

The transient dynamics of carbon monoxide (CO) molecules on a Ru(0001) surface following femtosecond optical laser pump excitation has been studied by monitoring changes in the unoccupied electronic structure using an ultrafast X-ray free-electron laser (FEL) probe. The particular symmetry of perpendicularly chemisorbed CO on the surface is exploited to investigate how the molecular orientation changes with time by varying the polarization of the FEL pulses. The time evolution of spectral features corresponding to the desorption precursor state was well distinguished due to the narrow line-width of the C K-edge in the X-ray absorption (XA) spectrum, illustrating that CO molecules in the precursor state rotated freely and resided on the surface for several picoseconds. Most of the CO molecules trapped in the precursor state ultimately cooled back down to the chemisorbed state, while we estimate that ∼14.5 ± 4.9% of the molecules in the precursor state desorbed into the gas phase. It was also observed that chemisorbed CO molecules diffused over the metal surface from on-top sites toward highly coordinated sites. In addition, a new “vibrationally hot precursor” state was identified in the polarization-dependent XA spectra.

Oxide-derived copper electrocatalysts have been found to possess excellent selectivity toward the production of multicarbon products from CO,. The presence of subsurface oxygen in these catalysts has been confirmed experimentally, but the resulting amorphous structure has yet to be captured by theoretical models. In this study, the role of subsurface oxygen atoms is investigated with density functional theory, using a disordered oxide-derived Cu surface model (d-ODCu). The presence of subsurface oxygen atoms increases the maximum adsorption coverage of the important CO intermediate but decreases that of H atoms because of electronic and geometric effects. However, this has no significant influence on the free-energy activation barrier or endothermicity of the CO-dimerization reaction step, allegedly the key to multicarbon product formation.

The carbon dioxide reduction reaction is a promising candidate to tackle ecological challenges of our age. This is due to its capability of reducing carbon dioxide emission generated from the combustion of fossil fuels by converting carbon dioxide into valuable hydrocarbons. Oxide-derived metal nanostructures have been found to exhibit unique catalytic characteristics for facilitating the carbon dioxide reduction reaction. In this thesis work, the stability, influence, and effects of subsurface oxygen atoms are investigated by theoretical computations with various levels of theory and models. It is found that subsurface oxygen atoms are stable and that their presence increases the CO adsorption strength and coverage on oxide-derived Cu surface. This is explained by a reduced σ-repulsion and leads to the breaking of scaling relations. Although it does not directly reduce the CO dimerization barrier, the adsorption of H atoms is inhibited thus steering the selectivity. The presence of subsurface oxygen atoms is also concluded from a joint work with experimental and theoretical efforts of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The precursor region of CO desorption from Ru(0001) is studied with the transition potential method. In contrast, for the simulation of the X-ray spectroscopy results on p4g C/Ni(100), which is a surface reconstruction when carbon atoms adsorb on Ni(100), vibrational effects are also needed for understanding the experimental data.

The production of useful compounds via the electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) is a matter of intense research. Although the thermodynamics and kinetic barriers of CO2RR are reported in previous computational studies, the electronic structure details are often overlooked. We study two important CO2RR intermediates: ethylenedione (OCCO) and CO, covalently bound to cluster and slab models of the Cu(100) surface. Both molecules exhibit a near-unity negative charge as chemisorbed, but otherwise they behave quite differently, as explained by a spin uncoupling perspective. OCCO adopts a high-spin, quartetlike geometry, allowing two covalent bonds to the surface with an average gross interaction energy of -1.82 eV/bond. The energy cost for electronically exciting OCCO- to the quartet state is 1.5 eV which is readily repaid via the formation of its two surface bonds. CO2, conversely, retains a low-spin, doubletlike structure upon chemisorption, and its single unpaired electron forms a single covalent surface bond of -2.07 eV. The 5.0 eV excitation energy to the CO2- quartet state is prohibitively costly and cannot be compensated for by an additional surface bond.

With the passage of time and the advancement of our industrial civilization, environmental concerns have become more and more recognized since the 1990s. Carbon dioxide reduction reactions are capable of converting carbon dioxide into valuable hydrocarbons and reducing the carbon emission from the combustion of fossil fuels. This is a promising direction for sustainable energy resources given that the scarcity of fossil fuels is becoming more threatening to the survival of mankind. In recent years, oxide-derived metal nanostructures have been synthesized and show unique catalytic features. Recently, Sloan et al. synthesized a novel oxide-derived copper nanocube structure, which showed a high selectivity toward ethylene over methane and low overpotentials. In this work, the presence of subsurface oxygen in the catalyst surface is tested with density functional theory (DFT) calculations, as a complement to experimental x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Due to limitations on the scale of modeling with DFT, the results indicate a very low stability of subsurface oxygen, which give rise to a question if subsurface oxygen would be stable with a reasonably large cluster model. Self-consistent charge density functional tight binding (SCC-DFTB) is adopted to investigate a nanocube model. In this model, a manually reduced cuprious oxide nanocube is constructed and investigated. Subsurface oxygen atoms close to facets are found to be more stable inside. A higher degree of disorder is proposed to be the cause of this difference in stabilizing subsurface oxygen atoms between the slab and nanocube models. The presence of subsurface oxygen enhances the adsorption of CO on the Cu(100) surface, increasing the likelihood for adsorbed CO molecules to dimerize, which is the rate determining step for ethylene production on Cu(100) under low-overpotential conditions. With subsurface electronegative atoms such as oxygen or fluorine, it is also found that the d-band scaling relation could be broken.

Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) electrodes exhibit higher activity than pristine copper during the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) and higher selectivity toward ethylene. The presence of residual subsurface oxygen in OD-Cu has been proposed to be responsible for such improvements, although its stability under the reductive CO2RR conditions remains unclear. This work sheds light on the nature and stability of subsurface oxygen. Our spectroscopic results show that oxygen is primarily concentrated in an amorphous 1-2 nm thick layer within the Cu subsurface, confirming that subsurface oxygen is stable during CO2RR for up to 1 h at -1.15 V vs RHE. Besides, it is associated with a high density of defects in the OD-Cu structure. We propose that both low coordination of the amorphous OD-Cu surface and the presence of subsurface oxygen that withdraws charge from the copper sp- and d-bands might selectively enhance the binding energy of CO.