Ternary and quaternary PtRuOs and
PtRuOsIr alloys are promising
alternatives to the binary PtRu alloys that serve as efficient anode
catalysts for methanol and hydrogen air fuel cells. The efficiency
of these catalysts is correlated to the adsorption of CO molecules
on their surfaces. In this work, we study CO adsorption on a series
of PtRu, PtOs, PtRuOs, and PtRuOsIr alloys and on pure Pt, Os, Ir,
and Ru using periodic density functional theory. Systematically, we
vary the location of the alloy atoms in the substrate and the alloy
Pt mole percent. As CO is adsorbed on PtRu, PtRuOs, and PtRuOsIr alloys,
the CO internal adsorbate bond and the C–Pt surface bond weaken
on average (for alloy configurations of the same Pt mole percent)
along with the decrease of the Pt mole fraction in the alloy. However,
the frozen substrate calculations show that these bonds are about
invariant of alloying Pt with Os atoms, with the exception of PtOs
configurations with Os atoms in the middle layer, whereas relaxing
the substrate surface may lead to stronger C–O and C–Pt
bonds due to alloying Pt with Os. The C–O and C–Pt overlap
populations are correlated with the carbon s-type vacancies and the
overall s, p, and d vacancies of the adsorbing metal, for the C–O
and C–Pt bonds, respectively: Hybridization defects are attributed
to the cases of concomitant increase of the overlap populations and
downshifts of the corresponding stretching frequencies. Changes in
the CO internal adsorbate bond are explained using a phenomenological
model based on the modified π-attraction σ-repulsion scheme
and is compared with the traditional 5σ donation–2π*
back-donation mechanism. This model successfully ascribes the C–O
internal adsorbate bond strength to the carbon and oxygen atom contributions
of the σ and π hybrid CO-substrate orbitals for the majority
of the systems examined here.