Effect of local metal microstructure on adsorption on bimetallic surfaces: atomic nitrogen on Ni/Pt(111)

The adsorption of atomic nitrogen on Ni/Pt(111) surface bimetallics has been investigated as a function of the local microstructure of Ni and Pt atoms via density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Microstructures include surface and subsurface Ni atoms on Pt(111) as limiting cases, and also small clusters of Ni in the first and/or second layer of Pt. It is shown that the binding energy of N can be approximated as a perturbation from that on the host metal (Pt) with a linear short-ranged correction from the guest metal (Ni) that accounts for the coordination environment of nitrogen up to the 3rd nearest Ni neighbor. This model is rationalized with the d-band center theory. Coverage effects are also included. The model can be parameterized with a limited number of DFT calculations and applied to other bimetallic catalysts to estimate the coverage dependent binding energy on complex metal microstructures.