The oxidation of methanol on a silver (110) catalyst

The oxidation of methanol was studied on a Ag(110) single-crystal by temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy. The Ag(110) surface was preoxidized with oxygen-18, and deuterated methanol, CH₃OD, was used to distinguish the hydroxyl hydrogen from the methyl hydrogens. Very little methanol chemisorbed on the oxygen-free Ag(110) surface, and the ability of the silver surface to dissociatively chemisorb methanol was greatly enhanced by surface oxygen. CH₃OD was selectively oxidized upon adsorption at 180 K to adsorbed CH₃O and D₂¹⁸O, and at high coverages the D₂¹⁸O was displaced from the Ag(110) surface. The methoxide species was the most abundant surface intermediate and decomposed via reaction channels at 250, 300 and 340 K to H₂CO and hydrogen. Adsorbed H₂CO also reacted with adsorbed CH₃O to form H₂COOCH₃which subsequently yielded HCOOCH₃ and hydrogen. The first-order rate constant for the dehydrogenation of D₂COOCH₃ to DCOOCH₃ and deuterium was found to be (2.4 ± 2.0) × 10¹¹ exp(?14.0 ± 0.5 $\text{kcal}\text{mole}$ · RT)sec^?1. This reaction is analogous to alkoxide transfer from metal alkoxides to aldehydes in the liquid phase. Excess surface oxygen atoms on the silver substrate resulted in the further oxidation of adsorbed H₂CO to carbon dioxide and water. The oxidation of methanol on Ag(110) is compared to the previous study on Cu(110).