Surface & Catalysis Workflow

SkillDev tools

Use when the user asks about surface slabs, Miller indices, adsorbate placement, adsorption sites, water layers, passivation, heterostructures, lattice matching, moire bilayers, or catalysis workflows.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Surface & Catalysis Workflow skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by hello-qm/catgo-lrg in catbot-plugin/skills/surface-catalysis/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

Surface Slab Generation

  1. Start with a bulk crystal (fetch or use current)
  2. catgo_generate_slab with miller_index as [h, k, l]
    • Defaults: min_slab_size=10.0 A, min_vacuum_size=15.0 A
    • Returns all symmetrically distinct terminations
  3. Inspect result with catgo_structure_info

Miller index selection:

SurfaceMiller IndexCommon Use
FCC (111)[1,1,1]Close-packed, catalysis
FCC (100)[1,0,0]Open surface
BCC (110)[1,1,0]Close-packed
Rutile (110)[1,1,0]TiO2 catalysis
Perovskite (001)[0,0,1]ABO3 surfaces

Adsorbate Placement

  1. catgo_adsorption_sites — Find top, bridge, hollow sites. height default 2.0 A.
  2. catgo_adsorption_place — Place adsorbate at chosen site coordinates.

Get adsorbate molecules via catgo_fetch_molecule:

  • CO, CO2, H2O, NH3, O2, CH4, etc.

Surface Passivation

catgo_passivate — Cap dangling bonds with pseudo-hydrogen on slab bottom surface. Requires both slab and bulk reference structure dicts.

Water Layer

catgo_water_layer — Add TIP4P water layer for solid/liquid interface models. Parameters: z_start, z_end, min_distance (overlap removal), equilibrate (optional LAMMPS).

Heterostructure & Interface

ZSL Lattice Matching (Two-Step)

  1. catgo_hetero_search — Find lattice-matched substrate/film pairs
  2. catgo_hetero_build — Build interface from selected match

One-Step Interface

catgo_hetero_build_intermat — Simpler pipeline, less control but faster prototyping.

Moire Bilayer

  1. catgo_moire_search — Find commensurate twist angles with supercell sizes
  2. catgo_moire_build — Build bilayer at selected angle

Complete Catalysis Recipe

  1. catgo_fetch_crystal (bulk, e.g. Pt)
  2. catgo_generate_slab (miller_index=[1,1,1], min_slab_size=12, min_vacuum_size=15)
  3. catgo_passivate (bottom surface)
  4. catgo_adsorption_sites (find sites)
  5. catgo_fetch_molecule (get adsorbate)
  6. catgo_adsorption_place (place at chosen site)
  7. catgo_structure_info (verify)
  8. Generate DFT input (see computational-input skill)

Signals

GitHub stars
196
Forks
23
Last commit
Sep 2026
Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
surface-catalysis
Source
github.com/hello-qm/catgo-lrg