A probabilistic microkinetic modeling framework for catalytic surface reactions

We present a probabilistic microkinetic modeling (MKM) framework that incorporates the short-ranged order (SRO) evolution for adsorbed species (adspecies) on a catalyst surface. The resulting model consists of a system of ordinary differential equations. Adsorbate-adsorbate interactions, surface diffusion, adsorption, desorption and catalytic reaction processes are included in the model. Assuming that the adspecies ordering/arrangement is accurately described by the SRO parameters, we employ the reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) method to extract the relevant local environment probability distributions and pass them to the MKM. The reaction kinetics is faithfully captured as accurately as the kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method, but with a computational time requirement of few seconds on a standard desktop computer. KMC, on the other hand, can require several days for the examples discussed. The framework presented here is expected to provide the basis for wider application of the RMC-MKM approach to problems in computational catalysis, electrocatalysis and material science.