Electronic and structural properties of phosphorus terminated structure of Ni 2 P(0001) surface(Ni 3 PP) are investigated by density functional theoretical (DFT) calculation. Phosphorus adsorption largely stabilizes the Ni 2 P(0001) surface by creating Ni-P bonds on the Ni trimer. Atomic hydrogen can adsorb on the topmost P site but its adsorption energy is much lower than its adsorption energy on the Ni trimer site of Ni 3 P 2 surface. Our results suggest that the Ni trimer is the key factor

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... r high catalytic activity. Nickel phosphide (Ni 2 P) shows a high catalytic activity for the hydrodesulfurization[1] and other hydrotreatment catalyses towards hydrodenitrogenation and hydrodeoxidation and so on. [2] The key issue to understand the hydrogenation reactions is interaction between hydrogen with Ni 2 P surface in an atomic level. The bulk structure of Ni 2 P is composed of two different layers with different composition, Ni 3 P 2 and Ni 3 P 1 , aligning alternately along the [0001] direction as shown in Figure 1(a) . Rodriguez et al. showed that Ni 3 P 2 surface was more stable surface than Ni 3 P 1 surface and they discussed the hydrogen adsorption properties on the Ni 3 P 2 surface.[3] However, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and low energy electron diffraction (LEED) studies on the Ni 2 P(0001) have revealed that the Ni 2 P(0001) surface is mainly (about 80 %) covered with phosphorus on the Ni three fold site of Ni 3 P 2 surface after 953 K annealing under UHV conditions with minor amount of uncovered Ni 3 P 2 surface. [4] [5] [6] This new phosphorus covered surface is called as Ni 3 PP surface. Similar phosphorus terminated surface was reported on the reconstructed (10-10) surface by STM observation [7] . The phosphorus termination of the surfaces were supported by