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Quantum Monte Carlo with ground-state input to investigate methane reactions on supported metal film catalysts

Nowadays, there is pressing demand for sustainable energy sources, or clean and 'green' fuel and hydrogen is a perfect candidate. It can be made by dissociating methane with the energy input compensated by metal-hydrogen bond formation. Industry uses Nickel supported on $γ$-alumina for this rate-limiting step. This work shows how to use Quantum Monte Carlo calculations to take (user-guided) information summarising chemistry of heterogeneous catalysis from a generic Jastrow factor, that allows electron correlation to be included in the density. This, in turn, gives accurate values of properties, in particular the activation barrier for stretching one methane C-H bond, before adsorbing CH3- and H- on vicinal nickel atoms in the close-packed (111) plane. The CH3- co-ordinates to a hollow site defined by three Ni atoms and, new to this work, another Ni-atom co-ordinates the H-atom from the dissociation.