IFEG   20353
INSTITUTO DE FISICA ENRIQUE GAVIOLA
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Hydrogen adsorption and fractional conductance of electrochemical nanowires
Autor/es:
E. SANTOS, G. SOLDANO, P. QUAINO AND W. SCHMICKLER
Revista:
ELECTROCHEMISTRY COMMUNICATIONS
Editorial:
Elsevier
Referencias:
Año: 2009 vol. 11 p. 1764 - 1774
ISSN:
1388-2481
Resumen:
A theory for electrocatalysis devised in the authors group is
combined with density functional theory to investigate the electro-
chemical reactivity of monoatomic nanowires towards hydrogen.
On Cu and Au wires, hydrogen atoms are much more strongly
adsorbed than on planar surfaces of the bulk metal, while on Ag
adsorption is weak. These results explain recent observations of
fractional conductances on electrochemical Cu and Au nanowires
in the hydrogen evolution region. Free energy surfaces for the ad-
sorption and discharge of the proton show low activation barriers
of the order of 0.1 eV for Au and 0.5 eV for Cu. Thus, both Au
and, most surprisingly, Cu wires promise to be good catalysts for
hydrogen evolution.