Chemisorption and decomposition of nitric oxide on ruthenium

Nitric oxide, strongly chemisorbed on ruthenium, is desorbed almost completely as oxygen and nitrogen. Oxygen, nitrogen, and nitric oxide were observed singly on ruthenium with field emission microscopy. Thermal desorption spectroscopy from Ru(101̄0) showed that molecular nitrogen is only physisorbed but nitrogen from NO decomposition is strongly chemisorbed. Nitrogen from NO shows three binding states, the most strongly bound being present to only a small extent. NO shows three and two binding states when adsorbed at 120 K and 295 K respectively. Work function measurements gave Δφ = 1.3 eV for a monolayer of NO. NO is dissociatively adsorbed above 250 K but a lower temperature limit was not established. The decomposition of NO on $\text{Ru}\text{(10}\text{1}\text{0)}$ under high vacuum conditions is catalytic in that no oxides of ruthenium were observed to form in the process.