Quantum dynamics of water dissociative chemisorption on rigid Ni(111): An approximate nine-dimensional treatment

The quantum dynamics of water dissociative chemisorption on the rigid Ni(111) surface is investigated using a recently developed nine-dimensional potential energy surface. The quantum dynamical model includes explicitly seven degrees of freedom of D2O at fixed surface sites, and the final results were obtained with a site-averaging model. The mode specificity in the site-specific results is reported and analyzed. Finally, the approximate sticking probabilities for various vibrationally excited states of D2O are obtained considering surface lattice effects and formally all nine degrees of freedom. The comparison with experiment reveals the inaccuracy of the density functional theory and suggests the need to improve the potential energy surface.