Unrestricted density functional study on the adsorption of hydrogen molecule on nickel surface

The adsorption of hydrogen molecule on Ni(100) and (111) surfaces is studied by unrestricted hybrid density functional calculation. Ni6 and Ni8 clusters are used as small single layer models, while Ni13 cluster as a model containing the second layer. The total energy of triplet state is most stable for both Ni6 (100) fourfold and Ni8 (111) threefold sites. We have found that the optimized geometrical parameters become closer to the experimental values, as the multiplicity increases from singlet to quintet states. Our adsorption energy on Ni13 (100) bridge site gives in reasonable agreement with the experimental value. q 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved