The adsorption of CO on evaporated iridium films,studied with infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy

The adsorption of ^12CO on Ir films evaporated under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) conditions was studied using infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRAS). Only a single absorption band was observed at 300 K, shifting continuously from the “singleton” value ~2010 cm^?1 at very low coverages to 2093 cm^?1 at saturation coverage. This band is attributed to CO adsorbed on top of the surface atoms. Synchronously with this shift the bandwidth at half maximum intensity $\text{Δv}{}_{\mathrm{<mtext>1</mtext><mtext>2</mtext>}}$ decreases from ~30 to 8 cm^?1. The integrated peak area increases linearly with coverage up to a relative coverage (θ_r) of approximately 0.4, then the increase levels off and a maximum is observed. Upon continuing adsorption the intensity decreases slightly. In addition results are presented on adsorption at 300 K of ¹²CO?¹³CO isotopic mixtures. The coverage induced frequency shift is discussed in terms of a dipole-dipole coupling mechanism and it is concluded that intermolecular coupling can explain the shift (~83 cm^?1) observed. The decrease in intensity at coverages > 0.4 is attributed to the formation of a compressed overlayer with part of the CO molecules adsorbed in a multicentre position with different spectral properties. No infrared bands of nitrogen adsorbed at 78 K could be detected at pressures up to 6.7 kPa (1 Pa = 0.0075 Torr, 1 Torr = 133.32 Pa).