Near neutrality of an oxygen molecule adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface

The charge state of paramagnetic or nonmagnetic O2 adsorbed on a Pt(111) surface is analyzed using density functional theory. We find no significant charge transfer between Pt and the two adsorbed molecular precursors, suggesting these oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) intermediates are nearly neutral, and changes in magnetic moment come from self adjustment of O2 spin-orbital occupations. Our findings support a greatly simplified model of electrocatalyzed ORR, and also point to more subtle pictures of adsorbates or impurities interacting with crystal than literal integer charge transfers.     

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.     

Theoretical study of oxygen chemisorption on (111) and (100) silicon surfaces

The chemisorption of atomic oxygen on (111) and (100) silicon surfaces has been studied by the MNDO method using a cluster approach. The results show that, for both surfaces, chemisorption occurs preferentially on bridge positions, but chemisorption on top positions can play a significant role especially for the (111) surface.     

Adsorption of oxygen on Pt(111)

Oxygen adsorbed on Pt(111) has been studied by means of temperature programmed thermal desorption spectroscopy (TPDS). high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and LEED. At about 100 K oxygen is found to be adsorbed in a molecular form with the axis of the molecule parallel to the surface as a peroxo-like species, that is, the OO bond order is about 1. At saturation coverage (θ_mol= 0.44) a $\text{(}\text{3}\text{2}\text{×}\text{3}\text{2}\text{)R15°}$ diffraction pattern is observed. The sticking probability S at 100 K as a function of coverage passes through a maximum at θ = 0.11 with S = 0.68. The shape of the coverage dependence is characteristic for adsorption in islands. Two coexisting types of adsorbed oxygen molecules with different OO stretching vibrations are distinguished. At higher coverages units with v-OO = 875 cm^?1 are dominant. With decreasing oxygen coverages the concentration of a type with v-OO = 700 cm^?1 is increased. The dissociation energy of the OO bond in the speices with v-OO = 875 cm^?1 is estimated from the frequency shift of the first overtone to be ~ 0.5 eV. When the sample is annealed oxygen partially desorbs at ~ 160K, partially dissociates and orders into a p(2×2) overlayer. Below saturation coverage of molecular oxygen, dissociation takes place already at92 K. Atomically adsorbed oxygen occupies threefold hollow sites, with a fundamental stretching frequency of 480 cm^?1. In the non-fundamental spectrum of atomic oxygen the overtone of the E-type vibration is observed, which is “dipole forbidden” as a fundamental in EELS.     

Angular distribution patterns of photoelectrons from orbitals of CO adsorbed on Ni(100), Pt(111) and Pt(110)

The synchrotron radiation from BESSY has been used to measure the photoemission from CO orbitals adsorbed as ordered overlayers on Ni(100) c(2 × 2), Pt(111) c(4 × 2) and Pt(110) (2 × 1)p2mg. Angular distribution patterns of photoelectrons from CO orbitals were recorded with a display-type analyzer. The data were compared with differential photoionization cross sections calculated for free and oriented molecules. The results demonstrate the upright orientation of CO on Ni(100) and Pt(111), while CO on Pt(110) shows a marked difference which can be explained by assuming that the CO molecules are tilted in the [001] directions of Pt(110), yielding a (2 × 1)p2mg superstructure observed in LEED. The tilt angle is estimated to about 20°. The structure model is supported by the shape resonances of the 4σ (5σ) orbitals of CO/Pt(110) as compared to CO/Pt(111).     

Direct reaction of adsorbed molecular oxygen with hydrazine on a clean Pt(111) surface

The oxidation of hydrazine on the clean Pt(111) surface has been investigated by temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS) in the temperature range 130–800 K. Direct reaction of molecular oxygen is observed on the Pt(111) surface for the first time, as indicated by the desorption of nitrogen beginning at 130 K with a maximum rate at 145 K, below the molecular oxygen dissociation temperature. Direct reaction of hydrazine with adsorbed molecular oxygen results in the formation of water and nitrogen. With excess hydrazine, all surface oxygen is reacted, forming water. When only adsorbed atomic oxygen is present, the low-temperature nitrogen yield decreases by a factor of 3 and the peak nitrogen desorption temperature increases to 170 K. No high-temperature (450–650 K) nitrogen desorption characteristic of nitrogen atom recombination is seen, indicating that during oxidation the nitrogen-nitrogen bond in hydrazine remains intact, as observed previously for hydrazine decomposition on the Pt(111) surface and hydrazine oxidation on rhodium. Two water desorption peaks are observed, characteristic of desorption-limited (175 K) and reaction-limited (200 K) water evolution from the Pt(111) surface. For low coverages of hydrazine, only the reaction-limited water desorption is observed, previously attributed to water formed from adsorbed hydroxyl groups. When excess hydrazine is adsorbed, the usual hydrazine decomposition products, H₂, N₂ and NH₃, are also observed. No nitrogen oxide species (NO, NO₂ and N₂O) were observed in these experiments, even when excess oxygen was available on the surface.     

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.     

Vibrational spectroscopy of oxygen on the (100) and (111) surfaces of lanthanum hexaboride

Reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) and high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS) have been used to study the adsorption of oxygen on the (100) and (111) surfaces of lanthanum hexaboride. Exposure of the surface at temperatures of 95 K and above to O₂ produces atomic oxygen on the surface and yields vibrational peaks in good agreement with those observed in previous HREELS studies. On the La-terminated (100) surface, RAIRS peaks correspond to vibrations of the boron lattice that gain intensity due to a decrease in screening of surface dipoles that accompanies oxygen adsorption. A sharp peak at ～ 734 cm^?1 in the HREEL spectrum shows isotopic splitting with RAIRS into two components at 717 and 740 cm^?1 with full widths at half maxima of only 12 cm^?1. The sharpness of this mode is consistent with its interpretation as a surface phonon that is well separated from both the bulk phonons and other surface phonons of LaB₆. On the boron-terminated LaB₆(111) surface, broad and weak features are assigned to both vibrations of the boron lattice and of boron oxide. On the (100) surface, oxygen blocks the adsorption sites for CO, and adsorbed CO prevents the dissociative adsorption of O₂.     

Relaxation and electronic states of Au(100), (110) and (111) surfaces

Using a first-principles method based on density functional theory, we investigate the surface relaxation and electronic states of Au(100), (110) and (111) surfaces. The calculated results show that the relaxations of the (100) and (110) surfaces of the metal are inward relaxations. However, the Au(111) surface shows an ‘anomalous’ outward relaxation, although several previous theoretical studies have predicted inward relaxations that are contrary to the experimental measurements. Electronic densities of states and the respective charge density distribution along the Z-axis of the relaxed surfaces are analyzed, and the origin of inward and outward relaxation is discussed in detail.     

Reactions and structures of water on clean and oxygen covered Pt(111) and Fe(100)

An atom superposition and election delocalization (ASED) technique applied to water adsorption on a small cluster model of Pt(111) shows weak and reversible chemisorption and facile and reversible hydrogen transfer to preadsorbed oxygen atoms as observed by Fisher, Sexton and Gland in EELS and UPS studies. Our theory predicts much stronger adsorption of water to Fe(100) with low barriers to dehydrogenation, in agreement with high temperature LEED-Auger results of Dwyer, Simmons, and Wei and wide temperature range XPS studies of Akimov. We predict a low barrier to transfer of hydrogen from water to adsorbed oxygen atoms, forming hydroxyl groups on the iron surface, and a fairly low barrier to the reverse reaction. On both metals we find hydroxyl groups are strongly held. Our calculations produce a trend toward greater negativity on going from adsorbed water to hydroxyl groups, and to hydroxyl dissociation products on these surfaces. We present reaction mechanisms, transition state geometries, and analysis in terms of molecular orbital theory and the total energy. It is found that the platinum is generally less reactive than iron toward water and hydroxyl species because platinum orbitals are less diffuse and the platinum s-d band lies lower, closer to adsorbate energy levels such that adsorbate-platinum antibonding orbitals are filled.     

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.     

Work function changes with sulfur coverage on Pt(111)

Work function changes (Δφ) with sulfur coverage have been measured on Pt(111). The sulfur overlayer has been also characterized by LEED, AES and TDS techniques. An unexpected Δφ decrease, which correlates with the growth of a p(2 × 2) structure, has been recorded. At higher sulfur coverage, a reverse in the sign of Δφ has been observed with a $\text{(}\text{3}\text{×}\text{3}\text{)R30 °}$ structure. It is proposed that the recent model of Shustorovich and Baetzold could account for these sulfur-induced Δφ changes. It is also concluded that the sulfur adsorption bond on platinum must be essentially covalent.     

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.     

Energetics and vibrational states for hydrogen on Pt(111)

We present a combination of theoretical calculations and experiments for the low-lying vibrational excitations of H and D atoms adsorbed on the Pt(111) surface. The vibrational band states are calculated based on the full three-dimensional adiabatic potential energy surface obtained from first-principles calculations. For coverages less than three quarters of a monolayer, the observed experimental high-resolution electron peaks at 31 and 68 meV are in excellent agreement with the theoretical transitions between selected bands. Our results convincingly demonstrate the need to go beyond the local harmonic oscillator picture to understand the dynamics of this system.     

Computer simulations of electron stimulated desorption patterns from oxygen on W(100) and (111) surfaces

Computer simulations of Electron-Stimulated-Desorption lon-Angular-Distribution patterns (ESDIAD) from oxygen covered W(100) and (111) surfaces were performed, using classcial dynamical formulas for the calculation of the O₊ ion trajectories. A model for the reconstruction of the O covered W(100) surface in the temperature range of 700–900 K is presented. The simulated ESD patterns have been brought into agreement with experimental results from literature by the proper choice: first of the repulsive atomic potentials acting on the ions, second of the rms amplitudes of the O atoms and third of the constants in the formula for Auger neutralization. The angular widths of the ESD spots were fitted by introducing bending vibrations of the chemisorbed O atoms and also by distributing the directions of the chemical bonds in limited angular areas. Assuming Franck-Condon type transitions and neglecting intermediate states, the final ion energies led to distances between the starting positions of the ions and the neighboring W atoms in the range of the known chemical bond lengths. The repulsive atomic potentials, obtained from Hartree-Fock-Slater self-consistent field calculations for W and O atoms in different electronic states and with different electronic charges, were compared with the potentials giving best agreement with the experimental ESDIAD results. In this way, qualitative conclusions concerning the electronic charge at the surfaces were derived.