First-Principles Study on the Molecular Mechanism of Solar-Driven CO₂ Reduction on H-Terminated Si

Solar-driven conversion of CO₂ with H-terminated silicon has recently attracted increasing interest. However, the molecular mechanism of the reaction is still not well understood. A systematic study of the mechanism has been carried out with first-principles calculations. The formation energies of the intermediates are found to be insensitive to the structure of the surface. On the fully H-terminated Si(111) surface, several pathways for the conversion of CO₂ into CO at a coordinatively saturated Si site are studied, including the conventional COOH* pathway and the direct insertion of CO₂ into Si-H and Si-Si bonds. Although the barrier of the COOH* pathway is lowest among the three pathways, it is higher than that for OH* elimination, which suggests that CO₂ should be converted by other types of active site. The reaction at the isolated and dual coordinatively unsaturated (CUS) Si sites, which can be generated by light illumination, heat, and Pd loading, are then studied. The results suggest that the most efficient pathway to convert CO₂ is to convert it into CO and O* at an isolated CUS Si site before O* reacts with a terminating H* to form adsorbed OH* and generate new isolated CUS Si sites. Therefore, the CUS Si site catalyzes the reaction until all H* is converted into OH*. The results provide new insight into the mechanism of the reaction and should be helpful for the design of more efficient Si-based catalysts for CO₂ conversion.