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Updated: Jun 19, 2026

Multiscale Sampling of a Heterogeneous Water/Metal Catalyst Interface using Density Functional Theory and Force-Field Molecular Dynamics
Published on: April 12, 2019
First-principles simulations of hydrogen peroxide formation catalyzed by small neutral gold clusters
Katarzyna A Kacprzak1, Jaakko Akola, Hannu Häkkinen
1Department of Physic, Nanoscience Center, FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, Finland.
Abstract:
Energetics and dynamical pathways for hydrogen peroxide formation from H(2) and O(2) bound to neutral gold dimers and tetramers have been investigated by applying several strategies: T = 0 K geometry optimizations, constrained Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations at T = 300 K and metadynamics at T = 300 K. The competing reaction channels for water and hydrogen peroxide formation have been found and characterized. In each case, the reaction barriers for Au cluster catalyzed proton transfer are less than 1 eV. Water formation is a competitive reaction channel, and the relative weight of H(2)O and H(2)O(2) products may depend on the chosen Au cluster size. Dynamic simulations demonstrate the significance of the geometric fluxionality of small catalytic Au clusters. These results indicate that neutral Au clusters could work as catalysts in aerobic H(2)O(2) formation in ambient conditions.
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