Towards an accurate specific reaction parameter density functional for water dissociation on Ni(111): RPBE versus PW91

In search for an accurate description of the dissociative chemisorption of water on the Ni(111) surface, we report a new nine-dimensional potential energy surface (PES) based on a large number of density functional theory points using the RPBE functional. Seven-dimensional quantum dynamical calculations have been carried out on the RPBE PES, followed by site averaging and lattice effect corrections, yielding sticking probabilities that are compared with both the previous theoretical results based on a PW91 PES and experiment. It is shown that the RPBE functional increases the reaction barrier, but has otherwise a minor impact on the PES topography. Better agreement with experimental results is obtained with the new PES, but the agreement is still not quantitative. Possible sources of the remaining discrepancies are discussed.