Processes of H-2 adsorption on Fe(1 1 0) surface have been studied by the density functional theory, properties such as surface structure, adsorption position, and adsorption energies are discussed as well. To investigate the atomic geometries and stability under different hydrogen coverages for this adsorption, the hydrogen coverages ranging from 0.125 to 1.000 are prepared by using different surface supercells. It is found that with the reduction of coverage, the average iron atomic energy and the adsorption energy are increased, leading to the system more stable; while coverage has little effect on the Fe(1 1 0) surface structure and the hydrogen adsorption process. The most stable absorption site is found to be the on-top site. Our calculations show that it is a weak adsorption and the adsorption energy barriers under 4.4 kcal/mol. The final state is H-2 molecule dissociated into two hydrogen atoms and interacting with surface iron atoms to form stable Fe-H bonds. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.