Reactions of formaldehyde and methanol on clean,carburized and oxidized Mo(100) surfaces

The reactions of formaldehyde and methanol have been studied on clean, carburized, and oxidized Mo(100) surfaces using temperature programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS). The thermal cracking of ethylene at 550 K and the adsorption of molecular oxygen at 1050 K were used to carburize and oxidize, respectively, the clean surface to saturation. Both the carbide and oxide surfaces showed (1×1) LEED features. Methanol decomposed to give hydrogen atoms and methoxy intermediates upon adsorption on the clean Mo(100) surface at 200 K. The methoxy intermediate was stable up to 340 K. Adsorbed carbon and oxygen suppressed the dissociation of the hydroxyl hydrogen from the alcohol and yielded a significantly different activity and selectivity compared to the very reactive clean surface. The binding energies for both formaldehyde and methanol on the three surfaces were similar, demonstrating the weak sensitivity of donor-acceptor bonds to surface modifiers. The results in this study were very similar to those previously observed for W(100) though different adlayer structures were present. This similarity suggested that the modification in surface reactivity was primarily a compositional effect.