Vibrational EELS,XPS and UPS study of CO chemisorbed on Pt10Ni90(111): Evidence for the existence of different sites

CO adsorption on the (111) face of a Pt₁₀Ni₉₀ alloy single crystal has been investigated at room temperature by vibrational electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS and UPS). Two well separated CO stretching modes develop at 2070 and 1820 ± 10 cm^?1, with their intensities reaching 64 and 36% respectively of the total intensity at saturation coverage. They are attributed to CO adspecies in terminal and bridge bonded configuration respectively. The UPS spectra of 4σ, 5σ and 1π molecular orbitais of adsorbed CO show complex features which may be resolved into two components having the main characteristics of CO adsorbed on pure Pt(111) and Ni(111) respectively. Such behaviour is also observed by XPS on C 1s on O 1s peaks. Their respective contributions, in both XPS and UPS spectra are about 64 and 36% of the whole spectrum. Finally compared to Ni(111) — on which CO adsorbs mainly in bridge configuration — the alloying with 10% Pt has generated the appearance of a large number of new sites for CO chemisorption associated with the presence of Pt atoms at the surface. The large amount of terminal CO adspecies is interpreted in terms of considerable surface enrichment of the alloy in platinum.