Adsorption of atomic and molecular oxygen on the LaMnO₃(001) surface: Ab initio supercell calculations and thermodynamics

We present and discuss the results of ab initio DFT plane-wave supercell calculations of the atomic and molecular oxygen adsorption and diffusion on the LaMnO₃ (001) surface which serves as a model material for a cathode of solid oxide fuel cells. The dissociative adsorption of O₂ molecules from the gas phase is energetically favorable on surface Mn ions even on a defect-free surface. The surface migration energy for adsorbed O ions is found to be quite high, 2.0 eV. We predict that the adsorbed O atoms could penetrate the electrode first plane when much more mobile surface oxygen vacancies (migration energy of 0.69 eV) approach the O ions strongly bound to the surface Mn ions. The formation of the O vacancy near the O atom adsorbed atop surface Mn ion leads to an increase of the O-Mn binding energy by 0.74 eV whereas the drop of this adsorbed O atom into a vacancy possesses no energy barrier. Ab initio thermodynamics predicts that at typical SOFC operation temperatures (∼1200 K) the MnO₂ (001) surface with adsorbed O atoms is the most stable in a very wide range of oxygen gas pressures (above 10^-2 atm).