Eur. Phys. J. B (2014) 87: 48
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2014-40566-x

Regular Article

First-principles study of molecular NO dissociation on Ir(100) surface

¹ Department of Physics, Jerash University, 26150 Jerash, Jordan
² Department of Physics, The University of Jordan, 11942 Amman, Jordan

^a e-mail: ihsanas@yahoo.com

Received: 13 June 2013
Received in final form: 17 November 2013
Published online: 26 February 2014

Abstract

The dissociation of NO on Ir(100) surface is investigated using density functional theory (DFT). The pathway and transition state (TS) of the dissociation of NO molecule are determined using climbing image nudge elastic band (CI-NEB). The prerequisite state of NO dissociation is determining the most stable sites of the reactant and products. We found that the most energetically stable sites are the hollow for N atom and the bridge for NO molecule as well as O atom. We found that the bending of NO is the first step of the dissociation reaction due to the increase of the back-donation from the d-band of Ir to 2π^∗ orbital of NO, which causes the weakening of NO bond. The dissociation energy barrier of NO molecule on Ir(100) surface is 0.49 eV.