Dependence of electron transfer dynamics on the number of graphene layers in π-stacked 2D materials: insights from ab initio nonadiabatic molecular dynamics.

Recent time-resolved transient absorption studies demonstrated that the rate of photoinduced interfacial charge transfer (CT) from Zn-phthalocyanine (ZnPc) to single-layer graphene (SLG) is faster than to double-layer graphene (DLG), in contrast to the expectation from Fermi's golden rule. We present the first time-domain non-adiabatic molecular dynamics (NA-MD) study of the electron injection process from photoexcited ZnPc molecules into SLG and DLG substrates. Our calculations suggest that CT occurs faster in the ZnPc/SLG system than in the ZnPc/DLG system, with 580 fs and 810 fs being the fastest components of the observed CT timescales, respectively. The computed timescales are in close agreement with those reported in the experiment. The computed CT timescales are determined largely by the magnitudes of the non-adiabatic couplings (NAC), which we find to be 4 meV and 2 meV, for the ZnPc/SLG and ZnPc/DLG systems, respectively. The transitions are driven mainly by the ZnPc out-of-plane bending mode at 1100 cm-1 and an overtone of fundamental modes in graphene at 2450 cm-1. We find that dephasing occurs on the timescale of 20 fs and is similar in both systems, so decoherence does not notably change the qualitative trends in the CT timescales. We highlight the importance of proper energy level alignment for capturing the qualitative trends in the CT dynamics observed in experiment. In addition, we illustrate several methodological points that are important for accurately modeling nonadiabatic dynamics in the ZnPc/FLG systems, such as the choice of surface hopping methodology, the use of phase corrections, NAC scaling, and the inclusion of Hubbard terms in the density functional and molecular dynamics calculations.

Micro-kinetic simulations of the catalytic decomposition of hydrazine on the Cu(111) surface.

Hydrazine (N2H4) is produced at industrial scale from the partial oxidation of ammonia or urea. The hydrogen content (12.5 wt%) and price of hydrazine make it a good source of hydrogen fuel, which is also easily transportable in the hydrate form, thus enabling the production of H2in situ. N2H4 is currently used as a monopropellant thruster to control and adjust the orbits and altitudes of spacecrafts and satellites; with similar procedures applicable in new carbon-free technologies for power generators, e.g. proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. The N2H4 decomposition is usually catalysed by the expensive Ir/Al2O3 material, but a more affordable catalyst is needed to scale-up the process whilst retaining reaction control. Using a complementary range of computational tools, including newly developed micro-kinetic simulations, we have derived and analysed the N2H4 decomposition mechanism on the Cu(111) surface, where the energetic terms of all states have been corrected by entropic terms. The simulated temperature-programmed reactions have shown how the pre-adsorbed N2H4 coverage and heating rate affect the evolution of products, including NH3, N2 and H2. The batch reactor simulations have revealed that for the scenario of an ideal Cu terrace, a slow but constant production of H2 occurs, 5.4% at a temperature of 350 K, while the discharged NH3 can be recycled into N2H4. These results show that Cu(111) is not suitable for hydrogen production from hydrazine. However, real catalysts are multi-faceted and present defects, where previous work has shown a more favourable N2H4 decomposition mechanism, and, perhaps, the decomposition of NH3 improves the production of hydrogen. As such, further investigation is needed to develop a general picture.

Density functional theory calculations of the hydrazine decomposition mechanism on the planar and stepped Cu(111) surfaces.

We have investigated the adsorption of hydrazine (N2H4) and its reactivity on terraces and steps of Cu(111) surfaces by first-principles calculations in order to gain insight into the hydrazine decomposition mechanism. We have investigated different possibilities for the N-N and N-H bond cleavage for any intermediate states by analysing the reaction and barrier energies of each elementary step. We have found that hydrazine dehydrogenation via N-H bond scission is neither energetically nor kinetically favourable on the flat and stepped surfaces, but hydrazine prefers to form NH2via N-N bond decoupling on the Cu(111) with an activation energy below 1 eV. The NH2 molecule reacts fairly easily with co-adsorbed NH2 to form NH3 as well as with N2Hx (x = 1-4) by abstracting hydrogen to produce NH3 and N2 molecules on both the flat and stepped surfaces. We also found that all intermediates except NNH prefer N-N bond breaking as the most likely dissociation pathway, where the amide and imide intermediates produced can be hydrogenated to form NH3 in the presence of hydrogen. NNH is the only intermediate, which prefers to dissociate via a highly exothermic N-H bond breaking process to produce an N2 molecule after overcoming a small barrier energy. We also studied the production of H2 by recombination of hydrogen ad-atoms which, considering the activation energies, is particularly favoured under conditions of moderate temperatures. Our results agree well with experiments suggesting that N2H4 adsorbs dissociatively on copper above ∼300 K leading to N2, NH3 and H2. In general, the lower coordination of the steps is found to lead to higher reactivity than on the flat Cu(111) surface. Furthermore, the calculations show that the influence of step edge atoms is very different for the intra- and intermolecular dehydrogenation mechanisms. They also increase the barrier of N-N decoupling of all the existing species in the reaction.