Lowering the C-H Bond Activation Barrier of Methane Using SAC@Cu(111): A Periodic DFT Investigations

Methane has long captured the world's spotlight for being the simplest and yet one of the most notorious hydrocarbon. Exploring its potential to be converted into value added products has raised a compelling interest. In the present work, we have studied the efficiency of Single-Atom Catalysts (SACs) for methane activation employing Density Functional Theory (DFT). The Climbing Image-Nudged Elastic Bond (CI-NEB) method is used in tandem with the Improved Dimer (ID) method to determine the minimum energy pathway for the first C-H bond dissociation of methane. Our study reported that the transition-metal doped Cu(111) surfaces enhance adsorption, activate C-H bond, and reduce activation barrier for first C-H bond cleavage of methane. The results suggest Ru/Co/Rh doped Cu(111) as promising candidates for methane activation with minimal activation barrier and less endothermic reaction. For these SACs, the calculated activation barriers for first C-H bond cleavage are 0.17 eV, 0.24 eV, and 0.26 eV respectively, which is substantially lower than 1.13 eV, the activation barrier for Cu(111).