Coadsorption of oxygen and sodium on Ru(001)

The interaction of oxygen with sodium predosed Ru(001) is studied by means of thermal desorption, Auger and electron loss spectroscopy and work function measurements. The initial sticking coefficient of oxygen is found to increase from 0.45 for bare Ru(001) to 1 for Ru(001) with a 0.35 monolayer sodium coverage. The adsorption capacity of the sodium predosed Ru(001) surface towards oxygen is enhanced from θ_O = 0.5 for clean Ru(001) to θ_O = 1.4 for Ru(001) with a 0.7 monolayer sodium coverage. The work function, electron loss changes and thermal desorption data give evidence that as long as θ_Na is less than 0.25, the oxygen chemisorption phase is characterized mainly by oxygen-Ru bonds and by the absence of strong sodium-oxygen interactions. At high sodium coverages (θ_Na > 0.35), the experimental data indicate the formation of a Na-O compound in the second adsorption layer at high oxygen exposures. When Ru(100) is predosed with sodium (θ_Na ? 0.25), this leads to complete suppression of oxygen penetration into the bulk during heating, the latter process being observed for the oxygen-Ru(001) system.