Surface characterization of supported Pt,Rh, and alloy particles by CO chemisorption

Temperature programmed desorption (TPD) of CO is used to determine surface areas, binding states, and changes upon oxidation for 10–1000 Å particles of Pt, Rh, and Pt-Rh alloy on amorphous SiO₂. A low area sample configuration is used to obtain rapid and uniform heating and cooling in an ultra-high vacuum system. It is shown that both metals exhibit a higher CO binding state for small particles, but, as particle size increases, this state disappears and is replaced by a more weakly bound state. These states are suggested to be associated with (111) and higher surface free energy planes on these surfaces, heating Rh above 700 K in O₂ at 10^?6 Torr produces an oxide on which the CO saturation coverage is at least a factor of 10 lower than on the reduced surface. For Pt, oxidation produces only a small decrease in CO coverage, although the binding energy of CO increases on the oxygen treated surface. The difference in desorption temperatures for CO on Pt and Rh is consistent with previous experiments which show that an oxidation-reduction cycle produces a surface layer which is enriched in Rh and that the oxidized alloy contains no Pt atoms.