Vibration spectroscopy of benzene adsorbed on Pt(111) and Ni(111)

High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy has been applied to study the adsorption of benzene (C₆H₆ and C₆D₆) on Pt(111) and Ni(111) single crystal surfaces between 140 and 320 K. The vibrational spectra provide evidence that benzene is chemisorbed with its ring parallel to the surface, predominantly π bonded to the platinum and nickel surface respectively. A significant frequency increase of the CH-out-of-plane bending mode, largest in the case of platinum, is observed compared to the free molecule. On both metals two phases of benzene exist simultaneously, characterized by a different frequency shift. The shifts are explained by electronic interaction between the metal d-orbitals and molecules adsorbed in on top and threefold hollow sites respectively. The vibrational spectra of the multilayer condensed phase of benzene exhibit the infrared active modes of the gasphase molecule as expected.     

Auger spectra of carbon monoxide chemisorbed on Pt(111) and Cu(111)

The Auger spectra of carbon monoxide adsorbed on Pt(111) and Cu(111) are compared. The characteristic features now regarded as a fingerprint of this adsorbed species are observed, even for the weakly adsorbed CO on copper which gives complex X-ray photoelectron spectra. No coverage dependence of the spectra was observed on either substrate. The C lsVV spectrum of CO/Cu(111) is dominated by transitions involving the “screening” electron in the 2π orbital.     

Energy barriers for interlayer diffusion in Pt/Pt(111) and Rh/Rh(111) homoepitaxy: Small islands

We performed detailed molecular statics calculations of energy barriers for various adatom movements in the vicinity of small island on (111) surfaces of Pt and Rh using Rosato-Guillope-Legrand interatomic potential. We found that for both systems the exchange processes are energetically favorable in comparison with direct jumps of an adatom. We observed that Ehrlich-Schwoebel barriers for exchange decrease significantly on small islands in comparison to single step on the surface. A comparison of both materials is presented. Presented at the VIII-th Symposium on Surface Physics, Třešt’ Castle, Czech Republic, June 28 – July 2, 1999. Financial support for this work was provided by the COST project P3.80.     

Carbon monoxide oxidation on Iridium (111) surfaces driven by strongly colored noise*

The influence of external colored noise on the carbon monoxide oxidation on Iridium(111) surfaces is examined. The noise is introduced in the reaction by randomly varying the composition of the gas flow that keeps the reaction going on. Colored noise is studied using two models: a simple discrete time Markov chain, and the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. We compute the probability distribution and transition times, for medium and large correlation time of the noise. These results extend previous analyses that have been limited to small correlation times and the presence of a slow manifold, both assumptions that are not supported by experiments. As we will see, the correlation and intensity of the noise leads to qualitative changes in the stochastic behavior of the system.     

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.     

A DFT study of H adsorption on Pt(111) and Pt-Ru(111) surfaces

In this work a comparative analysis between different Pt-Ru(111) surface models and pure Pt(111) surface is presented. Some aspects of the electronic structure of the surfaces and hydrogen adsorption are analysed based on density functional theory calculations. The hydrogen adsorption energy is significantly reduced when Ru is present on the surface. The substitution of Pt atoms by Ru atoms reinforce the Pt-H bond while the metal-metal bond is strongly modified, making the system less stable.     

High coverage states of oxygen adsorbed on Pt(100) and Pt(111) surfaces

Oxygen adsorption on the Pt(100) and Pt(111) surfaces was investigated using X-ray photo-emission and thermal desorption spectroscopies. Low pressure (ca. 10^?5 Pa) oxygen dosing at near ambient crystal temperature resulted in the formation of dissociated adsorbed species at saturation coverages of nominally 0.2–0.25 monolayer on both surfaces. The combination of higher pressure (ca. 10^?3 Pa) and higher surface temperature (570 K) dosing produced a three to five times higher saturation coverage than the low pressure dosing. The effect of dosing condition on the saturation coverage appears to reconcile apparent discrepancies for the Pt(100) surface in the literature. Characterization by XPS of the higher coverage state for oxygen showed that it is in the same chemical state as the oxygen adsorbed at very low coverage. Angle-resolved XPS has shown that in all cases the oxygen appears to reside on the surface with no significant penetration of oxygen into the bulk, as would be characteristic of oxidation. However, some penetration on the surface by oxygen, such as by a place-exchange type restructuring of the first two atomic layers, cannot be entirely ruled out.     

The structure of benzene on Rh(111): Coadsorption with CO

The molecular structure of benzene coadsorbed with CO on Rh(111) has been investigated by angle resolved UV photoemission (ARUPS), LEED and thermal desorption spectroscopy. The symmetry of the benzene adsorption complex in a mixed benzene-CO (3×3) LEED structure has been determined to C_6v by ARUPS. This indicates that the benzene molecules remain essentially undistorted in the CO coadsorbate layer, as it has been found for the pure benzene layer on Rh(111).     

Vibrational characterization of carbon monoxide oxidation on the Pt(111) surface

The surface reaction between coadsorbed carbon monoxide and atomic oxygen has been characterized using high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy, coupled with temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy on a Pt(111) surface characterized using Auger electron spectroscopy and low energy electron diffraction. Preferential oxidation of bridge bonded CO is not observed despite the fact that bridge bonded CO is adsorbed less vigorously than linearly bound CO. Saturation of the Pt(111) surface with one quarter of a monolayer of atomic oxygen completely suppresses the adsorption of bridge bonded CO. However, substantial coverages of bridge bonded CO can be coadsorbed if the Pt(111) surface is only partially saturated with atomic oxygen. The vibrational data for reaction of coadsorbed CO and atomic oxygen is consistent with a reaction mechanism involving reaction of mobile CO along oxygen island perimeters.     

Chemisorption studies on cobalt single crystal surfaces: I. Carbon monoxide on Co(0001)

The chemisorption of CO on Co(0001) and on a polycrystalline specimen has been studied by LEED, Auger spectroscopy, and thermal desorption measurements. Annealing of the polycrystal was found to result in a surface dominated by crystallites of (0001) orientation in the surface plane, along with a few (101̄2) oriented crystallites. CO adsorbs on the clean surface at 300 K with an initial sticking probability of 0.9 and the system follows precursor state kinetics. The saturation coverage under UHV conditions corresponds to a well-ordered (√3 × √3)R30° structure; with P_CO>5 × 10^-9 a uniform compression of the adlayer takes place and a (√7 × √7)R19.2° structure begins to form. Models are proposed for these two ordered phases which are in agreement with the observed relative coverage data and the appearance of the corresponding desorption spectra. The desorption enthalpy of CO at low coverages is 103 ± 8 kJmol^-1, and a fairly sharp fall in this enthalpy occurs for coverages $\text{>}\text{1}\text{3}$. In many respects, the system's behaviour closely resembles that of Ni(111)-CO. Oxygen contamination leads to the appearance of a strongly adsorbed CO state with a desorption enthalpy of ~170 kJmol^-1. This is reminiscent of a strongly adsorbed non-dissociated state of CO on Ru(101̄1) which occurs under similar conditions.     

Carbon monoxide dissociation on Rh nanopyramids

CO dissociation on rhomboidal faceted nanopyramids, produced on Rh(110) by fine-tuning of ion irradiation conditions, has been studied by high resolution core-level spectroscopy. We find that this morphology presents a large efficiency towards CO dissociation, a process which is inhibited on flat (110) terraces. We also measured the reactivity of nanostructures bound by different artificial step distributions identifying the sites responsible for the molecular bond disruption in the undercoordinated (n=6) edges running along the [11[over ]2] equivalent directions, with CO sitting in on-top configuration.     

Magnetic ordering of dangling bond networks on hydrogen-deposited Si(111) surfaces

Based on total-energy electronic-structure calculations within the density-functional theory, we find that a high spin state is realized for an ultimate dangling bond unit on an otherwise hydrogen-covered Si(111) surface. We further propose a systematic method of constructing nanometer-scale dangling bond networks that exhibit the ferrimagnetic spin ordering. The interplay between the electron-electron interaction and the surface reconstruction is elucidated.     

Ab-initio study of the coadsorption of Li and H on Pt(001), Pt(110) and Pt(111) surfaces

The coadsorption of Li and H atoms on Pt(001), Pt(110) and Pt(111) surfaces is studied using density functional theory with generalised gradient approximation. In all calculations Li, H and the two topmost layers of the metal were allowed to relax. At coverage of 0.25 mono-layer in a p(2×2) unit cell, lithium adsorption at the hollow site for the three surfaces is favoured over top and bridge sites. The most favoured adsorption sites for H atom on the Pt(001) and Pt(110) surfaces are the top and bridge sites, while on Pt(111) surface the fcc site appears to be slightly favoured over the hcp site. The coadsorption of Li and atomic hydrogen shows that the interaction between the two adsorbates is stabilising when they are far from each other. The analysis of Li, H and Pt local density of states shows that Li strongly interacts with the Pt surfaces.     

Adsorption and thermal chemistry of acrolein and crotonaldehyde on Pt(111) surfaces

The surface chemistry of acrolein and of crotonaldehyde on Pt(111) single-crystal surfaces was investigated under vacuum by temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and reflection-absorption infrared (RAIRS) spectroscopies. The main thermal decomposition path seen for both compounds was the expected decarbonylation of the unsaturated aldehyde to carbon monoxide and the corresponding olefin (ethene and propene, respectively), but small amounts of propene and ketene were detected in the case of acrolein as well. The RAIRS data indicate that while acrolein initially adsorbs with its plane parallel to the surface and interacts mainly via the carbonyl group, crotonaldehyde adopts a more complex geometry where the main interaction to the metal is via a rehybridization of the C=C double bond. It is suggested here that the changes in adsorption geometry induced by substitutions in the C=C double bond may be responsible for the observed changes in the subsequent reactivity of the adsorbed unsaturated aldehydes.     

Absolute coverages of CO and O on Pt(111); Comparison of saturation CO coverages on Pt(100), (110) and (111) surfaces

Nuclear microanalysis (NMA) has been used to determine the absolute coverages of oxygen and CO adsorbed on Pt(111). The saturation oxygen coverage at 300 K is 3.9 ± 0.4 × 10¹⁴ O atoms cm^?2 (θ = 0.26 ± 0.03), confirming the assignment of the LEED pattern as p(2 × 2). The saturation CO coverage at 300 K is 7.4 ± 0.3 × 10¹⁴ CO cm^?2 (θ = 0.49 ± 0.02). The low temperature saturation CO coverages on Pt(100), (110) and (111) surfaces are compared.     

Contrasting bonding configurations of acetone on Pt(111) and Ru(001) surfaces.

The comparative chemistry of acetone adsorption on Pt(111) and Ru(001) has been studied by EELS. On the more easily oxidized Ru(001) surface, acetone bonded in a side-on, η²(O,C) configuration, whereas on the well-defined. close- packed regions of the Pt(111) surface acetone adopted a weak adduct-like, end-on, η¹(O) configuration. On Pt(111), some η²(O,C) was also observed and associated with adsorption at low coordination accidental step sites.     

Interaction of H2O,CO, and H2 with Pt(111) and Pt(111)+K surfaces

The potential energy and surface dipole were calculated as a function of the geometry of the coadsorbed systems using the cluster method and theoretical oscillation frequencies and work function changes were compared with experiment. It was found that the K fills unoccupied Pt 5d states and reduces the local polarizability of the metal. The H₂O molecule binds to the K atom, such that the H atoms point towards the surface inducing an increase in the work function. For the CO molecule a charge transfer (KCO) through the surface stabilizes the bond and induces a change of adsorption place (on-topbridge). The K increases the tendency to H₂ dissociation because of the local decrease of the work function. Zero-point energy effects add important dynamical features to the electronic H₂- surface interaction. Three examples for the Pt(111)-H₂ system are presented: (i) A virtual attractive potential well produced by the softening of the H-H bond near the surface, (ii) a virtual potential barrier for dissociation due to the hindering of molecular rotations at the surface, and (iii) a change in the apparent surface temperature in H₂ desorption processes.