A first-principles study of Pt thin films on SrTiO3(100): Support effects on CO adsorption

Density functional theory was used to study CO adsorption on thin Pt metal films supported on SrO- and TiO2-terminated SrTiO3(100) surfaces. Regardless of substrate-termination, significant enhancement in CO binding occurred on the Pt monolayer compared to the bulk Pt(100) surface. We also observed CO-coverage dependent shifting of Pt atoms, influenced by the nature of underlying oxide atoms. These oxide-induced effects become negligible after depositing more than 2 monolayers of Pt. Evaluating the electronic structures of oxide-supported Pt showed that the interaction of filled Pt dxz+yz and empty Pt dz(2) states with CO molecular orbitals can be directly related to CO adsorption on the Pt/SrTiO3(100) surface. A hybrid d-band model is able to capture the CO adsorption trends for systems that do not show large lateral distortion except for the case of Pt adsorbed above the Sr atom on the SrO-termination. For this case, charge transfer from adjacent Pt atoms leads to a large filled dz(2) peak below the Fermi level that weakens the Pt-CO σ bonding due to Pauli repulsion.