Recurring competitive reactions: desorption of methane and molecular hydrogen from Cu(001)

Methane and molecular hydrogen desorption from a methyl and hydrogen exposed Cu(001) surface is investigated. Both gaseous products are observed nearly simultaneously within two temperature regimes separated by more than 100 K. The lower temperature desorption, at ～325 K, is believed to result from two processes which compete for adsorbed atomic hydrogen: methyl reduction and associative hydrogen desorption. The higher-temperature competitive desorption is initiated after the onset of thermal decomposition of remaining methyl species, at ～420 K. Kinetic simulations of the two presumed competing reactions are used to show observable and comparable methane and hydrogen evolution can occur in two temperature regimes, only with a precise balance of kinetic parameters, but fail to accurately reproduce the observed small differences in CH(4) and H(2) peak desorption temperatures. It is concluded that either the utilized desorption kinetics are inaccurate at low H((a)) coverages or rapid desorption, or the same reactions are not competitive at higher temperatures and an alternative active mechanism for product evolution must exist.     

Effects of detector geometry on measured lineshapes and intensities in surface scattering

A general expression for the detector response to a given beam flux distribution is given. Illustrative examples are worked out for some simple idealized cases and it is shown that both the measured lineshape and the measured intensity depend on the details of incident beam and detector geometry.     

Implementation of new TPD analysis techniques in the evaluation of second order desorption kinetics of cyanogen from Cu(001)

The interactions of cyanide species with a copper (001) surface were studied with temperature programmed desorption (TPD) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Adsorbed cyanide species (CN(a)) undergo recombinative desorption evolving molecular cyanogen (C(2)N(2)). As the adsorbed CN species charge upon adsorption, mutually repulsive dipolar interactions lead to a marked desorption energy reduction with increasing CN(a) coverages. Two new TPD analysis approaches were developed, which used only accurately discernible observables and which do not assume constant desorption energies, E(d), and pre-exponential values, ν. These two approaches demonstrated a linear variation of E(d) with instantaneous coverage. The first approach involved an analysis of the variations of desorption peak asymmetry with initial CN coverages. The second quantitative approach utilized only temperatures and intensities of TPD peaks, together with deduced surface coverages at the peak maxima, also as a function of initial surface coverages. Parameters derived from the latter approach were utilized as initial inputs for a comprehensive curve fit analysis technique. Excellent fits for all experimental desorption curves were produced in simulations. The curve fit analysis confirms that the activation energy of desorption of 170-180 kJ/mol at low coverage decreases by up to 14-15 kJ/mol at CN saturation.     

NONCOOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT OF THE NORTHEAST ATLANTIC COD FISHERY: A FIRST MOVER ADVANTAGE

The point of departure for this analysis is Bjørndal and Lindroos [2012], who developed an empirical bioeconomic model to analyze cooperative and noncooperative management of Northeast Atlantic cod. In their analysis, only constant strategies were analyzed for noncooperative games. In this paper, nonconstant strategies are considered. Moreover, the fishery in question is characterized by cooperative management. What may happen in the real world is that one nation breaks the cooperative agreement by fishing in excess of its quota. Often, it takes time for the other agent to detect this and respond. In this paper, we allow this kind of delayed response into a two‐agent noncooperative game so that, if country 2 exceeds its quota, there will be a time lag before this is detected by country 1; moreover, there may also be a delay until country 1 is able to respond. Results show that the outcome critically depends on the length of these two lags as well as initial conditions.     

Weak intermolecular interactions in an ionically bound molecular adsorbate: cyclopentadienyl/Cu(111)

The dissociative adsorption of cyclopentadiene (C(5)H(6)) on Cu(111) yields a cyclopentadienyl (Cp) species with strongly anionic characteristics. The Cp potential energy surface and frictional coupling to the substrate are determined from measurements of dynamics of the molecule together with density functional calculations. The molecule is shown to occupy degenerate threefold adsorption sites and molecular motion is characterized by a low diffusional energy barrier of 40±3 meV with strong frictional dissipation. Repulsive dipole-dipole interactions are not detected despite charge transfer from substrate to adsorbate.