Competitive Adsorption of H2O and SO2 on Catalytic Platinum Surfaces: a Density Functional Theory Study

Platinum has been widely used as the catalyst of choice for the production of hydrogen in the hybrid sulphur (HyS) cycle. In this cycle, water (H2O) and sulphur dioxide (SO2) react to form sulphuric acid and hydrogen. However, the surface reactivity of platinum towards H2O and SO2 is not yet fully understood, especially considering the competitive adsorption that may occur on the surface. In this study, we have carried out density functional theory calculations with long-range dispersion corrections [DFT-D3-(BJ)] to investigate the competitive effect of both H2O and SO2 on the Pt (001), (011) and (111) surfaces. Comparing the adsorption of a single H2O molecule on the various Pt surfaces, it was found that the lowest adsorption energy (Eads = -1.758 eV) was obtained for the dissociative adsorption of H2O on the (001) surface, followed by the molecular adsorption on the (011) surface (Eads = -0.699 eV) and (111) surface (Eads = -0.464 eV). For the molecular SO2 adsorption, the trend was similar, with the lowest adsorption energy (Eads = -2.471 eV) obtained on the (001) surface, followed by the (011) surface (Eads = -2.390 eV) and (111) surface (Eads = -1.852 eV). During competitive adsorption by H2O and SO2, the SO2 molecule will therefore preferentially adsorb onto the Pt surface. If the concentration of SO2 increases, self-reaction between two neighbouring SO2 molecules may occur, leading to the formation of sulphur monoxide (SO) and -trioxide (SO3) on the surface, which could lead to sulphur poisoning of the Pt catalytic surface.