Hydrogen dissociation and spillover on individual isolated palladium atoms

Using a combination of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory it is demonstrated how the nature of an inert host metal of an alloy can affect the thermodynamics and kinetics of a reaction pathway in a much more profound way than simply a dilution, electronic, or geometric effect. This study reveals that individual, isolated Pd atoms can promote H2 dissociation and spillover onto a Cu(111) surface, but that the same mechanism is not observed for an identical array of Pd atoms in Au(111).