Tunneling Effect in Dissociative Adsorption of O₂ on Pt(001) Surface

Abstract

  Dissociative adsorption process of O₂ molecule on Pt(001) surface are explored using quantum dynamical calculations based on coupled-channel method. The explored adsorption sites are the direct dissociative adsorption channels, where the molecularly adsorption or precursor state for O₂ sticking are absent, with certain amount of activation barrier. We find that the dissociative sticking probability of O₂ depicts the sigmoidal (S-shaped) curve in all cases which is a manifestation of the tunneling effect. Moreover, the sticking curve is sensitively dependent on the shape of the activation barrier which affects the width of the transition region. Finally, the tunneling effect can be clearly acknowledged from the wave function of O₂.