Comparative study of photochemistry of methane on Pt(111) and Pd(111) surfaces

Adsorption states and photochemistry of methane physisorbed on Pd(111) have been investigated by temperature-programmed desorption and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and compared with those on Pt(111). On both of the surfaces, methane is either dissociated into a hydrogen atom and a methyl radical or molecularly desorbed by 6.4 eV photon irradiation. In the photochemistry, the direct electronic excitation of the adsorbate-substrate complex plays an important role. Different features observed for Pd(111) compared with Pt(111) are: (1) the adsorbate-substrate interaction is slightly stronger; (2) methane adsorbates show a (√3√3)R30° LEED pattern at 40 K; (3) the photochemical cross-section is larger by 60%; and (4) the photochemistry is not self-quenched at prolonged irradiation. The origins of these features are discussed in terms of the differences in the electronic structure between the two surfaces.