Hydride Accessibility and Reactivity in the Configurational and Stoichiometric Space of β-Ga2O3 for CO2 Hydrogenation

Understanding how surface species evolve under reaction conditions is essential for improving catalyst design for efficient CO2 hydrogenation. This work combines systematic DFT calculations with grand canonical sampling to investigate the stability and reactivity of Ga–H species on β-Ga2O3 across a range of reaction conditions. Initial DFT studies reveal that when Ga–H species are present, they facilitate formate formation via a low-barrier pathway, largely independent of the surface termination or hydrogen site. However, grand canonical sampling shows that under a broad range of reaction conditions─especially at high oxygen chemical potentials associated with high water content─Ga–H species are thermodynamically inaccessible. Furthermore, adsorbed water molecules can block reactive sites, inhibiting CO2 activation even when hydrides are present. These findings suggest that the lack of accessible hydride species, rather than their intrinsic reactivity, could contribute to reduced catalytic performance of β-Ga2O3 under more oxidizing, high-conversion conditions.