Thermal evolution of acetylene and ethylene on Pd(111)

The thermal evolution of acetylene and ethylene and their deuterated counterparts on a palladium (111) surface has been studied by high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy in the temperature range 150–500 K. Analysis of the vibrational spectra indicates that chemisorbed acetylene evolves at 300 K in the presence of surface hydrogen to mainly ethylidyne, CCH₃, and a small amount of residual acetylene. Spectra obtained with and without preadsorbed hydrogen provide evidence for a 〉C CH₂ intermediate in the reaction. Chemisorbed ethylene also evolves to ethylidyne after heating from 150 to 300 K but much of the ethylene desorbs. The high temperature (400–500 K) behavior of C₂H₂ and C₂H₄ involves formation of a CH species. Although a small amount of the CH species may be formed from the dehydrogenation of ethylidyne, it is found that carbon-carbon bond scission of acetylene near 400 K is the dominant mechanism in CH formation.     

Characterization of methylidyne on Pt(1 1 1) with infrared spectroscopy

Methylidyne (CH) was prepared on Pt(1 1 1) by three methods: thermal decomposition of diiodomethane (CH₂I₂), ethylene decomposition at temperatures above 450 K, and surface carbon hydrogenation. Methylidyne and its precursors are characterized by reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS). The C-I bond of diiodomethane breaks upon adsorption to produce methylene (CH₂), which decomposes to methylidyne at temperatures above 130 K. Above 200 K, methylidyne is the only hydrocarbon species observed with RAIRS, although reaction channels for the formation of methane (CH₄) and ethylene (C₂H₄) are indicated by temperature programmed desorption (TPD). As is well known from numerous previous studies, ethylene decomposes to ethylidyne (CCH₃) upon exposure to Pt(1 1 1) at 410 K. Upon annealing to 450 K, ethylidyne dissociates through two reaction pathways, dehydrogenation to ethynyl (CCH) and C-C bond scission to methylidyne. Ethylene dehydrogenation on the surface at 750 K and under low ethylene exposures produces surface carbon that can be hydrogenated to methylidyne with C-H and C-D stretch frequencies of 2956 and 2206 cm⁻¹, respectively. Hydrogen co-adsorption on the surface causes these frequencies to shift to higher values. Methylidyne is stable on Pt(1 1 1) to temperatures up to 500 K.     

STM investigation of the adsorption and temperature dependent reactions of ethylene on Pt(111)

The adsorption and reactions of ethylene adsorbed in UHV on Pt(111) have been studied as a function of temperature by STM. The STM images taken at 160K show an ordered structure of adsorbed ethylene. Annealing to 300 K produces ethylidyne (C-CH₃) irreversibly, as has been demonstrated by a wide variety of surface science techniques. The ethylidyne on Pt(111) is not visible to the STM at room temperature. Cooling the sample allows direct observation of the ethylidyne ordered structure by STM. Annealing above 430 K results in further dehydrogenation, eventually leaving only carbon on the surface. The decomposition products appear as small clusters which are localized and uniformly distributed over the surface. Further annealing to temperatures >800 K results in the growth of graphite islands on the Pt(111) surface. The annealed graphite islands exhibit several supersturctures with lattice parameters of up to 22 Å, which are thought to result from the higher order commensurability with the Pt(111) substrate at different relative rotations.     

The electronic structure of the high temperature phase of ethylene adsorbed on Pd(111)

The room temperature phase of ethylene on Pd(111), previously assigned as ethylidyne CH₃?C, has been studied by angle-resolved ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy. For the first time all the C 2p derived levels of ethylidyne on a surface have been resolved and there is good correspondence with the levels of ethylidyne in a metal complex; an adsorbate-induced feature of the metal is also observed. The ethylidyne species is slightly less thermally stable than on Pt(111).     

Thermal evolution of C2H2 and C4H2 on Pd(111) studied by high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy

The thermal evolution of acetylene and ethylene on a palladium (111) surface has been studied by high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy in the temperature range 150K–500K. Formation of ethylidyne ( CCH₃) near room temperature is important for both molecules, whereas CH is the major surfaces hydrocarbon species formed at high temperatures.     

Hydrogen isotope exchange in a coverage obtained on Ir(111) by ethylene adsorption

HREELS and SIMS studies of hydrogen isotopc exchange in a coverage obtained on Ir(111) by ethylene adsorption are carried out at 180–450 K and at a hydrogen (deuterium) pressure up to 8×10⁶ Pa. The ethylidyne species have shown a high stability towards hydration and structural changes upon hydrogen (deuterium) exposures. Under these conditions hydrogen exchange in the methyl groups is a slow process. With increasing temperature the hydrogen exchange in the decomposition products of ethylidyne (C₂H species) is quick and depends on the exchanged amount of atomically adsorbed hydrogen.     

The adsorption of ethylene oxide on Ag(110) and Pt(111): Relevance to selective olefin oxidation

The interactions of ethylene oxide (EtO) with the Ag(110) and Pt(111) surfaces have been studied using XPS, TDS, AES and EELS. On Ag(110), the interaction is very weak, with only molecular desorption observable. The heat of adsorption is ≈ 10.1 kcal mole⁻¹. In contrast, decomposition reactions strongly predominate on Pt(111) at low coverage. Molecular desorption is only seen at high coverages. The heat of adsorption decreases from > 11.9 to 10 kcal mole⁻¹ with increasing coverage. Condensed multilayers desorb at ≈ 140 K. Ultimate decomposition products on Pt(111) include H₂ and CO gas, and carbon residue on the surface. Evidence suggests that adsorbed decomposition intermediates may include atomic hydrogen, CO, acetyl and ethylidyne species, with at least one other, yet unidentified, species. These results imply that, if produced, adsorbed ethylene oxide would be unlikely to escape a reactor containing Pt catalyst without further decomposition reactions. This may help explain the uniqueness of Ag catalysts in ethylene epoxidation.     

Decomposition of NH3 on Ir(110): A first-principle study

The adsorption and dehydrogenation of NH₃ on Ir(110) have been investigated using periodic density functional calculations. The adsorption sites, the adsorption energies, the predominant adsorption configurations and the transition states of the stepwise dehydrogenation of NH₃ were identified. The results show that the NH₃ prefers the top site with inclining 68.6° of N―Ir bond relative to the surface, while NH₂, NH, N and H favor the short bridge position. The NH decomposition to N and H or recombination with H to form NH₂ shares the similar and relatively high reaction energy barrier, implying that NH will be the main surface species in the NH₃ dehydrogenation processes. N―N bond formation possesses the highest energy barrier of 1.75 eV, indicating that it is the rate-limiting step for NH₃ decomposition. Barrier decomposition analysis reveals that the deformation and the binding to the surface of the reactants and the interaction among binding species in transition states will increase the activation energy while the bonding to the surface of the species in transition state will decrease the energy barrier.     

Ethylene dissociation on flat and stepped Ni(1 1 1): A combined STM and DFT study

The dissociative adsorption of ethylene (C₂H₄) on Ni(1 1 1) was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The STM studies reveal that ethylene decomposes exclusively at the step edges at room temperature. However, the step edge sites are poisoned by the reaction products and thus only a small brim of decomposed ethylene is formed. At 500 K decomposition on the (1 1 1) facets leads to a continuous growth of carbidic islands, which nucleate along the step edges.DFT calculations were performed for several intermediate steps in the decomposition of ethylene on both Ni(1 1 1) and the stepped Ni(2 1 1) surface. In general the Ni(2 1 1) surface is found to have a higher reactivity than the Ni(1 1 1) surface. Furthermore, the calculations show that the influence of step edge atoms is very different for the different reaction pathways. In particular the barrier for dissociation is lowered significantly more than the barrier for dehydrogenation, and this is of great importance for the bond-breaking selectivity of Ni surfaces.The influence of step edges was also probed by evaporating Ag onto the Ni(1 1 1) surface. STM shows that the room temperature evaporation leads to a step flow growth of Ag islands, and a subsequent annealing at 800 K causes the Ag atoms to completely wet the step edges of Ni(1 1 1). The blocking of the step edges is shown to prevent all decomposition of ethylene at room temperature, whereas the terrace site decomposition at 500 K is confirmed to be unaffected by the Ag atoms.Finally a high surface area NiAg alloy catalyst supported on MgAl₂O₄ was synthesized and tested in flow reactor measurements. The NiAg catalyst has a much lower activity for ethane hydrogenolysis than a similar Ni catalyst, which can be rationalized by the STM and DFT results.     

Proton-NMR study on chemisorption of ethylene on platinum powder

The high-temperature phase of ethylene on surfaces of Pt powder has been studied by proton-NMR in order to decide whether the surface species is the ethylidyne species (CH₃C) proposed by Kesmodel et al. or the multiple-bonded species (CH₂CH) proposed by Demuth. The observed NMR spectrum is not attributable to CH₃-groups on the surfaes, but can be interpreted as the superposition of two signals, one originating from CH₂-groups and the other from CH-groups. In other words, the results suggest that the surface species is the multiple-bonded species.     

First-principles calculations of ammonia decomposition on Ni(110) surface

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) have been performed to study the adsorption and decomposition of NH₃ on Ni(110). The adsorption sites, the adsorption energies, the transition states and the activation energies of the stepwise dehydrogenation of NH₃ and the associative desorption of N are determined, and the zero point energy correction is included, which makes it possible to compute the rate constants of the elementary steps in NH₃ decomposition. Combined DFT calculations and kinetic analysis at 350 K indicate that the associative desorption of N has a reaction rate lower than NH_x dehydrogenation and is therefore the rate determining step. The distinctly different rate constants over Ni(110), Ni(111) and Ni(211) imply that ammonia decomposition over Ni-based catalyst is a structure-sensitive reaction.     

The adsorption and reaction of ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol on Pd(111): A TPD and HREELS study

The reactions of ethylene glycol and 1,2-propanediol have been studied on Pd(111) using temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS). Both molecules initially decompose through O–H activation, forming ethylenedioxy (–OCH₂CH₂O–) and 1,2-propanedioxy (–OCH₂CH(CH₃)O–) surface intermediates. For ethylene glycol, increases in thermal energy lead to dehydrogenation and formation of carbonyl species at both oxygen atoms. The resulting glyoxal (O═CHCH═O) either desorbs molecularly or reacts through one of two competing pathways. The favored pathway proceeds via C–C bond scission, dehydrogenation, and decarbonylation to form carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In a minor pathway, small amounts of glyoxal undergo C–O bond scission and recombination with surface hydrogen to form ethylene and water. The same reaction mechanism occurs for 1,2-propanediol after methyl elimination and formation of glyoxal. However, this is accompanied by a minor pathway involving a methylglyoxal (O=CHC(CH₃)=O) intermediate. The prevalence of the dehydrogenation/decarbonylation pathway in the current work is consistent with the high selectivity for C–C scission in the aqueous phase reforming of polyols on supported Pd catalysts.     

Determination of the coverage of ethylene and ethylidyne on Pt(111) using elastic recoil detection analysis

Very high energy ions incident upon a sample with adsorbed light adatoms will cause some of the adsorbates to recoil off the surface with substantial amounts of energy. The number of recoil particles is a direct measure of the adatom concentration. Using this technique (elastic recoil detection analysis or ERDA), we have determined the concentration of adsorbed ethylene (C₂H₄) and ethylidyne (C₂H₃) on Pt(111). We find, both for adsorption below and at room temperature, that the coverage is approximately one half of a monolayer, in agreement with earlier work using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We propose that the adsorbed ethylidyne molecules form a honeycomb lattice.     

Adsorption of acetylene and ethylene on a clean Ir(111) surface

The adsorption of C₂H₂ and C₂H₄ on Ir(111) is studied within the temperature range 180–500 K by the HREELS and XPS methods. The absolute concentration of hydrocarbon coverage is estimated by XPS. Data are obtained on the kinetics of adsorption of the two gases at different temperatures. It is established by HREELS studies that at 180 K C₂H₄ forms ethylidyne (CCH₃ whereas C₂H₂ is adsorbed as CCH and ethylidyne species. At 300 K both kinds of species are found on the Ir(111) surface after C₂H₂ or C₂H₄ exposures. The ethylidyne decomposes completely to CCH at 500 K, which can be accompanied by polymerization of adsorbed hydrocarbon species.     

The room temperature phase of Propene on Rh(111): A caveat on thermal processing for the production of adsorbed phases at definite temperatures

Hydrocarbon phases from the thermal processing of low temperature adsorption of propene on Rh(111) and those from direct adsorption at particular temperatures were characterized by HREELS and were found to show differences. The phase from direct adsorption at room temperature contains C_xH species and ethylidyne which shows a better bond breaking ability than the room temperature phase produced by thermal processing which contains ethylidyne, propylidyne and di-σ adsorbed propene. The use of the phase from direct adsorption at room temperature, especially the low coverage phase, in comparison with similarly prepared phases on Ru(001), Ir(111), Ni(111), Pd(111) and Pt(111) shows a correlation on bond breaking ability that agrees with Sinfelt's correlation of the hydrogenolysis activity of the group 7–10 metals. This suggests that the room temperature phase of an alkene on a surface can be used to predict the hydrogenolysis activity of that surface.     

A LEED crystallography study of the (2×2)−C2H3 structure obtained after ethylene adsorption on Rh(111)

The structure of the Rh(111)-(2 × 2)-C₂H₃ overlayer that was obtained upon the adsorption of ethylene has been determined using a LEED intensity analysis. In agreement with a prior HREELS study, an ethylidyne (CCH₃) species is found to stand perpendicularly above an hcp hollow site with a carbon-carbon distance of 1.45±0.10 Å and a metal-carbon distance of 2.03±0.07 Å. The Zanazzi-Jona and Pendry R-factors for this structure are 0.49 and 0.52, respectively. By comparison with similar organometallic complexes, the relatively short carbon-carbon distance and long metal-carbon distance can be explained by σ?π hyperconjugation of the surface ethylidyne fragment.     

Adsorption and decomposition of symdimethylhydrazine and hydrogen cyanide on Pt (111)

Adsorption and decomposition of sym-dimethylhydrazine on Pt (111) has been studied at ～ 290 K. Decomposition occurs by two pathways. One yields CH₄ and N₂ at room temperature; the second, analogous to decomposition of ethylene diamine, yields mainly dehydrogenation products. These include HCN, which it is suggested is initially adsorbed molecularly on this surface and β₂-C₂N₂.     

The role of co-adsorbed metal atoms in the chemistry of methyl species on Pt(111) formed by the decomposition of dimethylmercury and dimethylzinc

The chemistry of methyl species resulting from the decomposition of dimethylmercury (DMM) and dimethylzinc (DMZ) on Pt(111) in the range 300–400 K has been investigated by temperature prograrnmed desorption (TPD) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). In each case at 300 K, dissociative adsorption of the precursor results in the formation of an adlayer of methylmetal (CH₃M) moieties. These species are thermally stable to around 350 K before decomposing to yield mainly gaseous products, methane and hydrogen, and surface bound metal atoms. For DMM, subsequent heating to 400 K or direct dissociative adsorption at 400 K results in the formation of ethylidyne species. Ethylidyne formation is not observed in the thermal chemistry of DMZ at temperatures below 400 K and only transiently in the chemistry at 400 K. Complementary TPD and AES data indicate that, for DMM, desorption of the mercury atoms produced by CH₃Hg decomposition is the limiting factor in allowing the prevailing C₁ species to couple to form ethylidyne. In contrast, AES evidence indicates that zinc atoms remain on the surface to temperatures in excess of 750 K and hence prevent C---C coupling by blocking surface sites.     

Mechanistic understanding of hydrogenation of acetaldehyde on Au(111): A DFT investigation

This paper describes the reaction pathways for hydrogenation of acetaldehyde on atomic hydrogen pre-adsorbed Au(111) employing density functional theory (DFT) calculations. All the surface species involved in the reaction scheme have low diffusion barriers, suggesting that the rearrangement and movement of these species on the surface are facile under reaction condition. The hydroxyethyl is proposed to be the intermediate for the hydrogenation of acetaldehyde, and the activation energy for its formation is 0.37 eV. Additionally, the coupling reaction of hydroxyethyl and acetaldehyde – resulting in the formation of the ethylidene ethylene glycol (CH₃C^?HOCH(CH₃)OH) species – also readily occurs at the reaction condition. Two-dimensional (2-D) polyacetaldehyde ((CH₃CHO)₂) can be easily hydrogenated to ethylidene ethylene glycol or ethoxy hemiacetal (CH₃CH₂OCH(CH₃)O^?); the latter can be converted to ethanol and acetaldehyde via further hydrogenation. As the hydrogenation products of ethylidene ethylene glycol and ethoxy hemiacetal, ethoxyethanol (CH₃CH₂OCH(CH₃)OH) can be deeply hydrogenated to hydroxyethyl and ethanol. Our calculations also suggest that the formation of an ethoxyl intermediate is not likely, which agrees with the experimental observation that no deuterated acetaldehydes have been detected in isotopic measurements.     

The dehydrogenation of CH4 on Rh(1 1 1), Rh(1 1 0) and Rh(1 0 0) surfaces: A density functional theory study

CH₄ dehydrogenation on Rh(1 1 1), Rh(1 1 0) and Rh(1 0 0) surfaces has been investigated by using density functional theory (DFT) slab calculations. On the basis of energy analysis, the preferred adsorption sites of CH_x (x = 0-4) and H species on Rh(1 1 1), Rh(1 1 0) and Rh(1 0 0) surfaces are located, respectively. Then, the stable co-adsorption configurations of CH_x (x = 0-3) and H are obtained. Further, the kinetic results of CH₄ dehydrogenation show that on Rh(1 1 1) and Rh(1 0 0) surfaces, CH is the most abundant species for CH₄ dissociation; on Rh(1 1 0) surface, CH₂ is the most abundant species, our results suggest that Rh catalyst can resist the carbon deposition in the CH₄ dehydrogenation. Finally, results of thermodynamic and kinetic show that CH₄ dehydrogenation on Rh(1 0 0) surface is the most preferable reaction pathway in comparison with that on Rh(1 1 1) and Rh(1 1 0) surfaces.