title: Relative stability of low-index V(2)O(5) surfaces: a density functional investigation.
abstract: Ab initio density functional calculations of the structural and electronic properties of V(2)O(5) bulk and its low-index surfaces are presented. For the bulk oxide and the (010) surface (the natural cleavage plane) a good agreement with experiment and with earlier ab initio calculations is found. For the first time, the investigations are extended to other low-index surfaces: (001) and (100). On both surfaces, termination conserving a bulk-like stoichiometry is preferred, but-in contrast to the (010) surface-a strong structural relaxation takes place. Relaxation reduces the surface energy from 1.16 to 0.48 J m(-2) for the (001) and from 0.61 to 0.55 J m(-2) for the (100) surface. Although the relaxed surface energies are still one order of magnitude higher than calculated for the (010) surface (0.047 J m(-2)), the Wulff construction demonstrates that (001) and (100) surfaces contribute about 15% of the total surface area of a V(2)O(5) crystallite, indicating a non-negligible role in the catalytic activity of V(2)O(5).
authors.affiliation: Institute of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry PAS, Krakow, Poland.
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Goclon
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Grybos
authors.forename: Małgorzata
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Witko
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hafner