Reactive scattering of small molecules from platinum crystal surfaces: D2CO,CH3OH,HCOOH, and the nonanomalous kinetics of hydrogen atom recombination

The decomposition of D₂CO, CH₃OD and HCOOH on Pt(110) and of D₂CO on Pt(S)-[9(111) × (100)] was studied by molecular beam relaxation spectroscopy. D₂CO and CH₃OD evolved CO and H₂ via a desorption limited sequence of elementary steps. The rate constant for CO desorption from Pt(110) was 6 × 10¹⁴exp(? 35.5 $\text{kcal}\text{gmol}$ · RT) s^?1, and from Pt(S)-[9(111) × (100)] it was 1 × 10¹⁵ exp(?36.2 $\text{kcal}\text{gmol}\text{·RT}$) s^?1. On Pt(110) the rate constant for hydrogen formation was 10^{0 ± 1}exp(?24 $\text{kcal}\text{gmol}\text{·RT}$) $\text{m}\text{?}{}^2\text{atom}$ · s. On Pt(S)-[9(111) × (100)] two pathways for H₂ formation existed with rate constants of 8.7 × 10^?2exp( ?24.9 $\text{kcal}\text{gmol}\text{· RT}$) $\text{cm}{}^2\text{atom}$· s and 3.2 × 10^?3 exp(?19.5 $\text{kcal}\text{gmol}\text{·RT}$) $\text{cm}{}^2\text{atom}\text{·}$ s. These pre-exponential factors are in order of magnitude agreement with values typical of hydrogen recombination on other metals. When a small amount of sulfur ( ~ 0.1 ML) was adsorbed on the stepped Pt surface, only one pathway for H₂ formation existed due to blockage of stepped sites. A similar result was obtained when a beam of CO was impinged on the surface. Formic acid decomposed via a branched process to form primarily CO₂ and H₂.