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Title: Leveraging Thermochemistry Data to Build Accurate Microkinetic Models
Ab initio microkinetic modeling, parameterized using density functional theory (DFT) energies, is a common tool to quantify reaction rates and analyze reaction mechanisms a priori in heterogeneous catalysis. Such models, however, often have large prediction errors even if they include plausible reaction steps and correctly model the active sites; this is partially due to the intrinsic inaccuracies of the chosen DFT functional. Borrowing concepts from Bayesian calibration theory, we show that transferable data-driven corrections to DFT energies in the form of Gaussian process models trained on single-crystal adsorption calorimetry data can improve the accuracy of microkinetic models substantially. Specifically, we demonstrate that such corrections improve the predictive accuracy of the microkinetic model of the water-gas shift reaction on single-crystal Cu(111) surface by 3 orders of magnitude. We finally show that Gaussian process corrections serve as informed priors in a Bayesian experimental design framework to learn an accurate a posteriori microkinetic model from few kinetic experiments. We posit that these results suggest that even infusing small, related, high-fidelity thermochemistry data, when available, can systematically and substantially improve the predictive accuracy of microkinetic models.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1804104
PAR ID:
10189596
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The journal of physical chemistry
Volume:
124
ISSN:
1520-5207
Page Range / eLocation ID:
5740–5748
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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