Kinetic Monte Carlo Simulation of the oscillatory catalytic CO oxidation using a modified Ziff-GulariBarshad model

Abstract

The oxidation of CO on Pt-group metal surfaces has attracted widespread attention since a long time due to its interesting oscillatory kinetics and spatiotemporal behavior. The use of STM in conjunction with other experimental data has confirmed the validity of the surface reconstruction (SR) model under low pressure and the more recent surface oxide (SO) model which is possible under sub-atmospheric pressure conditions [1]. In the SR model the surface is periodically reconstructed below a certain low critical CO-coverage and this reconstruction is lifted above a second, higher critical CO-coverage. Alternatively the SO model proposes periodic switching between a low-reactivity metallic surface and a high-reactivity oxide surface. Here we present an overview of our recent kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation studies on the oscillatory kinetics of surface catalyzed CO oxidation. Different modifications of the lattice gas Ziff-Gulari-Barshad (ZGB) model have been utilized or proposed for this purpose. First we present the effect of desorption on the ZGB reactive to poisoned irreversible phase transition in the SR model. Next we discuss our recent research on KMC simulation of the SO model. The ZGB framework is utilized to propose a new model incorporating not only the standard Langmuir-Hinshelwood (LH) mechanism, but also introducing the Mars-van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism for the surface oxide phase [5]. Phase diagrams, which are plots between long time averages of various oscillating quantities against the normalized CO pressure, show two or three transitions depending on the CO coverage critical threshold (CT) value beyond which all adsorbed oxygen atoms are converted to surface oxide.