Dissociative adsorption of CH₃X (X = Br and Cl) on a silicon(100) surface revisited by density functional theory.
During the dissociative adsorption on a solid surface, the substrate usually participates in a passive manner to accommodate fragments produced upon the cleavage of the internal bond(s) of a (transient) molecular adsorbate. This simple picture, however, neglects the flexibility of surface atoms. Here, we report a Density Functional Theory study to revisit our early studies of the dissociative adsorption of CH3X (X = Br and Cl) on Si(100). We have identified a new reaction pathway, which involves a flip of a silicon dimer; this new pathway agrees better with experiments. For our main exemplar of CH3Br, insights have been gained using a simple model that involves a three-atom reactive center, Br-C-Si. When the silicon dimer flips, the interaction between C and Si in the Br-C-Si center is enhanced, evident in the increased energy-split of the frontier orbitals. We also examine how the dissociation dynamics of CH3Br is altered on a heterodimer (Si-Al, Si-P, and Si-Ge) in a Si(100) surface. In each case, we conclude, on the basis of computed reaction pathways, that no heterodimer flipping is involved before the system transverses the transition state to dissociative adsorption.
Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Functional Materials & Micro-nano Devices, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, People's Republic of China.
Chen-Guang
CG
Wang
Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3H6, Canada.
Kai
K
Huang
Department of Physics and Beijing Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Functional Materials & Micro-nano Devices, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, People's Republic of China.
Wei
W
Ji