01941nas a2200241   4500008004100000022001400041245011400055210006900169260005700238300000900295490000800304520105600312653002401368653003601392653001101428653002401439653002101463100002101484700002201505700002601527700001601553856013001569       2014                        eng d  a1432-881X00aComputational investigation on the catalytic activity of Rh-6 and Rh4Ru2 clusters towards methanol activation0 aComputational investigation on the catalytic activity of Rh6 and  a233 SPRING ST, NEW YORK, NY 10013 USAbSPRINGERcDEC  a15970 v1343 a<p>Catalysis of molecular activation of small molecules through scission of strong chemical bonds is one of the major challenges faced by chemists. More specifically, activation of the strong C-H and O-H bonds of various alcohols, especially methanol, is one of the various important intermediate steps of key organic reactions. Our present work explores a suitable metal cluster catalyst towards methanol dissociation. In particular, we have examined the effect of ruthenium doping (Rh:Ru = 2:1) on the catalytic activity of Rh-6 cluster towards methanol dissociation. Density functional theory-based calculations illustrate two competitive pathways for methanol dissociation, which are via O-H and C-H bond breaking. Both the pathways are found to be energetically favourable in the presence of bimetallic and mono-metallic clusters. Importantly, energy barrier for O-H bond dissociation reduces considerably in doped cluster as compared to pure Rh-6 cluster and is smaller than the values reported for a number of other small metallic clusters.</p>10aBimetallic Clusters10aDensity Functional Theory (DFT)10aDoping10aMethanol Activation10aRhodium Clusters1 aGhatak, Kamalika1 aSengupta, Turbasu1 aKrishnamurty, Sailaja1 aPal, Sourav  uhttps://library.ncl.res.in/content/computational-investigation-catalytic-activity-rh-6-and-rh4ru2-clusters-towards-methanol-0