Universal binding-energy relation in chemisorption

Abstract

We have discovered a universal relationship between chemisorbed-atom—metal-substrate interaction energies and separation distances. For a variety of adatoms and substrates, the adatom binding energy as a function of the distance between the adatom and metal surface has been accurately determined by a simple scaling of the universal relationship. We also reveal an accurate, simple relationship between the electron-number density distributions at jellium surfaces and the bulk electron density.