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First-principles investigation of methanethiol adsorption and dissociation mechanisms on the high-Miller-index vicinal surface Cu(4 1 0)

In this work, we present detailed investigations of methanethiol adsorption on a Cu(4 1 0) surface within the framework of the self-consistent first-principles calculations as implemented in the Vienna ab initio simulation package (VASP). In particular, the adsorption sites, the surface coverage rate and electronic properties have been determined and compared to experimental values. The results indicate that the favorable adsorption site in the case of low coverage rate is a bridge on the step followed by the hollow site on the terrace. The adsorption significantly affects the outermost layer of the surface mainly for a higher coverage rate in a (2  ×  2) supercell. The nature of the chemisorption process on the surface is analyzed by means of the density of states which, combined with charge density difference and atomic charge calculations, confirms the ionic character of the S–Cu bond. The specific effect of the presence of steps is highlighted by comparing the adsorption on the (1 0 0) terrace to the adsorption on the extended Cu(1 0 0) surface. Compared to the flat Cu(1 0 0), it is found here that while the stability is almost the same at p(2  ×  2) coverage, the CH3S/Cu(4 1 0) becomes more stable than CH3S/Cu(1 0 0) at c(2  ×  2) coverage with 0.30 eV per molecule. The mechanism of methanethiol dissociation is explored by the nudged elastic band method and demonstrates that the most favorable path is dissociation followed by migration of hydrogen from the step to its most stable position (hollow on the terrace) with energy barriers less than 0.5 eV.