The present study provides detailed discussions about the structures, relative stabilities, and vibrational frequencies of hydrogen species on MoS2. NiMoS, and CoMoS catalyst edge Surfaces. The transition states and activation energies for molecular hydrogen dissociation and surface migration of atomic hydrogen on catalyst edge surfaces have been calculated by complete linear synchronous transit (LST) and quadratic synchronous transit (QST) search methods. It has been found that the heterolytic dissociation of molecular hydrogen at a pair Of sulfur-metal sites to form an -SH group and a metal hydride is energetically preferred. The dissociation of molecular hydrogen oil the Ni-promoted (10 (1) over bar0) metal edge of NiMoS requires slightly lower activation energy than that oil the unpromoted (10 (1) over bar0) Mo-edge of MOS2 (0.87 and 0.91 eV, respectively). The dissociation of molecular hydrogen on the unpromoted ((1) over bar 010) S-edge requires a large activation energy (about 1.0 eV), and the addition of cobalt to the ((1) over bar 010) S-edge significantly lowers the dissociation energy to approximately 0.6 ev. The atomic hydrogen species on the ((1) over bar 010) S-edge and the Co-promoted ((1) over bar 010) S-edge are less mobile than on the (10 (1) over bar0) Mo-edge of MoS2 or the Ni-promoted (10 (1) over bar0) metal edge of NiMoS. The calculated vibrational frequencies of different surface hydrogen species agree well with reported experimental observations and have provided references for further spectroscopic experiments. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.