Rotational and steric effects in water dissociative chemisorption on Ni(111)

Powerful laser techniques have recently enabled quantum-state resolved molecular beam experiments for investigating gas-surface reactions, which have unveiled intriguing vibrational, rotational, and also steric effects. For reactions involving polyatomic molecules, e.g., the dissociative chemisorption of methane and water, the rotational and related steric effects are far less understood despite a large body of theoretical work having been able to reproduce the observed vibrational mode specificity and related bond selectivity semi-quantitatively or even within chemical accuracy. Herein, we report a high dimensional quantum dynamics study of water dissociation on Ni(111) on a first-principles potential energy surface, focusing on the reactivities of D₂O in various rotational quantum states with different spatial orientations. Through an accurate quantum mechanical description of this asymmetric top, remarkable dependence of the reactivity on the orientation is observed. This dependence is site specific and rotational state specific. These single site rotational and steric effects are partially justified by a sudden model on the basis of the overlap between the rotational wavefunctions and the angular potential near the transition state, but rotational steering also plays a significant role which complicates the dynamics. Although site averaging weakens the influence of initial rotational excitations and leads to minor effects to the reactivity, steric effects are predicted to be observable if the water molecule is selectively excited and aligned by a linearly polarized laser.