Vibrational infrared spectrum of NH3 adsorbed on MgO(100). I. Ab initio calculations Original Research Article

The perturbed cluster approach, previously devoted to the calculation of the stable adsorption site and energy for ammonia adsorbed on MgO(100), is used to determine the frequency and the intensity of the main peaks associated with the normal vibrational modes of the admolecule. The ab initio model based on a cluster embedded in an array of point charges is then compared to the perturbed cluster approach and used to investigate different molecular orientations and associations on the surface in order to give an interpretation to the occurrence of the infrared signals. Six normal modes for each admolecule are calculated due to the removing of internal degeneracy by adsorption. The characteristics of the calculated spectrum are compared to the experimental infrared data and it is shown that the set of selected situations is able to explain almost every band in the spectrum without implication of NH3 dissociation on the surface.