Strong structure sensitivity in the partial oxidation of styrene on silver single crystals

In contrast to the formation of styrene oxide on Ag(1 1 1), phenylacetaldehyde and phenylketene dominate the partial oxidation of styrene on Ag(1 1 0), even though the reactions follow the same mechanism on both surfaces. The origin of this difference is that on Ag(1 1 0) the activation energy for transformation of the oxametallacycle to the combustion intermediate is much lower than on the (1 1 1) surface, so that ring-closure of the oxametallacycle to form styrene oxide is short circuited. Also the combustion intermediate appears more stable on Ag(1 1 0) than on Ag(1 1 1).     

The mechanism of methanol formation and other reactions following formaldehyde adsorption on Ni(110)

The adsorption/desorption and reactive behavior of formaldehyde was studied on clean single-crystal Ni(110) at adsorption temperatures down to 200 °K. For low exposures of the surface to formaldehyde, hydrogen and CO binding states were populated due to decomposition of the molecule upon adsorption. Higher exposures gave rise to a decomposition-limited hydrogen peak exhibiting an activation energy of 20 kcal/gmol and an apparent frequency factor of 10¹⁴ sec^?1. At initial coverages of H₂CO exceeding about 0.5, monolayer methanol was observed to form. The formation of methanol involved a hydrogen atom transfer between two adsorbed H₂CO molecules and did not occur totally via surface hydrogen. Self-oxidation to form CO₂ was also observed. The surface exhibited reaction heterogeneity, and the surface reactivity was observed to depend on the temperature of adsorption of reactants, suggesting strong adsorbate-induced surface “reconstruction.”     

XPS,UPS and thermal desorption studies of alcohol adsorption on Cu(110): I. Methanol

The adsorption of methanol on clean and oxygen dosed Cu(110) surfaces has been studied using temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS), ultra-violet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Methanol was adsorbed on the clean surface at 140 K in monolayer quantities and subsequently desorbed over a broad range of temperature from 140 to 400 K. The UPS He (II) spectra showed the 5 highest lying emissions seen in the gas phase spectrum of methanol with a chemisorption bonding shift of the two highest lying orbitais due to bonding to the surface via the oxygen atom with which these orbitals are primarily associated. A species of quite a different nature was produced by heating this layer to 270 K. Most noticeably the UPS spectrum showed only 3 emissions and the maximum coverage of this state was approximately $\text{1}\text{2}$ monolayer. The data are indicative of the formation of a methoxy species, thus showing that methanol is dissociated on the clean Cu(110) surface at 270 K. The same dissociated species was observed on the oxygen dosed surface, the main difference in this ease being the production of large amounts of H₂CO observed in TPRS at 370 K.     

Sulfur dioxide adsorption and reaction with atomic oxygen on the Ag(110) surface

The adsorption of SO₂ on Ag(110) and the reaction of SO₂ with oxygen adatoms have been studied under ultrahigh vacuum conditions using low energy electron diffraction, temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy and photoelectron spectroscopy. Below 300 K, SO₂ adsorbs molecularly giving p(1×2) and c(4×2) LEED patterns at coverages of one half and three quarter monolayers. respectively. At intermediate coverages, streaked diffraction patterns, similar to those reported for noble gas and alkali metal adsorption on the (110) face of face-centered cubic metals were observed, indicating adsorption out of registry with the surface. A feature at low binding energy in the ultraviolet photoemission spectrum appeared which was assigned to a weak chemisorption bond to the surface via the sulfur, analogous to bonding observed in SO₂-amine charge transfer complexes and in transition metal complexes. SO₂ exhibited three binding states on Ag(110) with binding energies of 41, 53 and 64 kJ mol^?1; no decomposition on clean Ag(110) was observed. On oxygen pretreated Ag(110), SO₂ reacted with oxygen adatoms to form SO_3(a), as determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Reacting preadsorbed atomic oxygen in a p(2 × 1) structure with SO₂ resulted in a c(6 × 2) pattern for SO_3(a). The adsorbed SO_3(a) decomposed and disproportionated upon heating to 500 K to yield SO_2(g), SO_4(a) and subsurface oxygen.     

The adsorption of CO,O2, and H2 on Pt(100)-(5×20)

The adsorption/desorption characteristics of CO, O₂, and H₂ on the Pt(100)-(5 × 20) surface were examined using flash desorption spectroscopy. Subsequent to adsorption at 300 K, CO desorbed from the (5×20) surface in three peaks with binding energies of 28, 31.6 and 33 kcal gmol^?1. These states formed differently from those following adsorption on the Pt(100)-(1 × 1) surface, suggesting structural effects on adsorption. Oxygen could be readily adsorbed on the (5×20) surface at temperatures above 500 K and high O₂ fluxes up to coverages of $\text{2}\text{3}$ of a monolayer with a net sticking probability to ssaturation of ? 10^?3. Oxygen adsorption reconstructed the (5 × 20) surface, and several ordered LEED patterns were observed. Upon heating, oxygen desorbed from the surface in two peaks at 676 and 709 K; the lower temperature peak exhibited atrractive lateral interactions evidenced by autocatalytic desorption kinetics. Hydrogen was also found to reconstruct the (5 × 20) surface to the (1 × 1) structure, provided adsorption was performed at 200 K. For all three species, CO, O₂, and H₂, the surface returned to the (5 × 20) structure only after the adsorbates were completely desorbed from the surface.     

The oxidation of H2CO on a copper(110) surface

The oxidation of H₂C¹⁶O by adsorbed ¹⁸O was studied on an Cu(110) sample by temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy. Formaldehyde exchanged its oxygen with surface ¹⁸O upon adsorption to yield H₂C¹⁸O_(a) and ¹⁶O_(a). Formaldehyde was also oxidized by surface ¹⁶O and ¹⁸O atoms to H₂COO which subsequently released one of the hydrogen atoms to form HCOO. The evolution of H₂ from the Cu(110) surface was desorption limited, and the low pre-exponential factor for the recombination of the surface hydrogen atoms suggested stringent requirement on the trajectories of the colliding partners. The formate was very stable and dissociated at elevated temperatures to simultaneously yield H₂ and CO₂. The surface concentration of ¹⁸O exerted a pronounced affect on the activity of the oxidation of formaldehyde on Cu(110).     

The oxidation of CO on the Pt(100)-(5 × 20) surface

The kinetics of the CO oxidation reaction were examined on the Pt(100)-(5 × 20) surface under UHV conditions. The transient isothermal rate of CO₂ production was examined both for exposure of an oxygen-dosed surface to a beam of CO and for exposure of a CO-dosed surface to a beam of O₂. Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetics were found to apply in both cases. For the reaction of CO with preadsorbed oxygen atoms, the reaction rate was dependent upon the square-root of the oxygen atom coverage, suggesting that oxygen atoms were adsorbed in islands on this surface. The oxidation of preadsorbed CO was observed only when the initial CO concentrations were less than 0.5 monolayer (c(2 × 2) structure), suggesting that the dissociative adsorption of oxygen required adjacent four-fold surface sites. The activation energy calculated for the reaction of CO with preadsorbed oxygen was 31.4 kcal/mol. This value was 30 kcal/mol greater than the activation energy measured for the reaction of O₂ with preadsorbed CO. Strong attractive interactions within the oxygen islands were at least partially responsible for this difference. The reaction kinetics in both cases changed dramatically below 300 K; this change is believed to be due to phase separation at the lower temperature.