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The stepwise dehydrogenation of ammonia on clean and O-covered Co surfaces have been studied by performing density functional theory (DFT) calculations. It is found that the interaction of species NH x ( x = 0–3) with the Co surfaces become stronger with its further dehydrogenation, and oxygen atom not only strengthens ammonia-substrate interaction but also facilitates ammonia dissociation. Specifically, pre-adsorbed O atom significantly promotes the stepwise dehydrogenation of ammonia on Co(110), giving rise to N atom strongly binding with the surface. In contrast, the dissociation of NH appears to be the rate-determining step on O-covered Co(111) and Co(100) surfaces, due to the high energy barriers. And present results demonstrate that the species N and NH produced in ammonia dehydrogenation are likely responsible for cobalt catalyst deactivation in the excess of oxygen atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water adsorption and dissociation on clean and O-covered Co(100), Co(110) and Co(111) surfaces are studied using the density functional theory calculations. The results indicate that molecular water weakly binds to the surfaces and is feasible to desorption from the clean surfaces. Moreover, the pre-adsorption of O atom increases the binding of water to the surfaces, and prominently decreases the activation barriers of water dissociation into OH, especially on Co(110) surface. In contrast, the activation barrier for OH dissociation is slightly affected in the presence of O atom. Overall, this study reveals that O-assisted H 2 O favorably adsorbs dissociatively, forming OH chemisorbed on the surfaces, which further hinders H 2 O dissociation, and also illustrates the fact that molecular water dissociation is structure-sensitive on metal surfaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]