Effects of adsorbed carbon and oxygen on the chemisorption of H2 and Co on Mo(100)

The deposit of carbon and oxygen adatoms on Mo(100) was characterized by AES and LEED. Carbon was introduced by the thermal cracking of ethylene; several ordered structures were observed as a function of coverage with carbon atoms residing on four-fold sites. The Mo(100)—O system exhibited two different sequences of LEED patterns depending on the adsorption temperature of oxygen. The effects of adsorbed carbon and oxygen on the chemisorption properties of Mo(100) was investigated by FDS. The presence of either carbon or oxygen severely hindered the ability of Mo(100) to dissociatively adsorb hydrogen or carbon monoxide. The amount of CO dissociated was directly related to the available four-fold sites on the carbide surfaces. The molecular adsorption of CO was not significantly affected by the adlayers. It was found that one monolayer of adsorbed oxygen reduced the binding energy of molecular CO considerably more than the same amount of adsorbed carbon. A continuous shift in the binding energy of CO with the C/O ratio on the surface was observed.