Hybrid RPA:DFT Approach for Adsorption on Transition Metal Surfaces: Methane and Ethane on Platinum (111).

The hybrid QM:QM approach is extended to adsorption on transition metal surfaces. The random phase approximation (RPA) as the high-level method is applied to cluster models and, using the subtractive scheme, embedded in periodic models which are treated with density functional theory (DFT) that is the low-level method. The PBE functional, both without dispersion and augmented with the many-body dispersion (MBD), is employed. Adsorption of methane and ethane on the Pt(111) surface is studied. For methane in a 2 × 2 surface cell, the hybrid RPA:PBE and RPA:PBE+MBD results, -14.3 and -16.0 kJ mol, respectively, are in close agreement with the periodic RPA value of -13.8 kJ mol at significantly reduced computational cost (factor of ∼50). For methane and ethane, the RPA:PBE results (-14.3 and -17.8 kJ mol, respectively) indicate underbinding relative to energies derived from experimental desorption barriers for relevant loadings (-15.6 ± 1.6 and -27.2 ± 2.9 kJ mol, respectively), whereas the hybrid RPA:PBE+MBD results (-16.0 and -24.9 kJ mol, respectively) agree with the experiment well within experimental uncertainty limits (deviation of -0.4 ± 1.5 and +2.3 ± 2.9 kJ mol, respectively). Finding a cluster that adequately and robustly represents the adsorbate at the bulk surface is important for the success of the RPA-based QM:QM scheme for metals.