The sticking and dissociation of NH3 on W(110): a three-state model

The kinetics of the adsorption of NH₃ on W(110) and its subsequent dissociation have been investigated using molecular beam techniques and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) for surface temperatures ranging from 140 to 700 K. NH₃ shows a wide desorption peak around 270 K and a smaller peak at 170 K while H₂ and N₂, produced by dissociation, desorbed at 550 and 1350 K, respectively, with kinetic parameters similar to those reported for H and N generated by adsorption of H₂ and N₂. At normal incidence and for a surface temperature of 140 K, the NH₃ sticking coefficient was found to decrease from unity at a beam energy of 0.8 kcal/mol to 0.5 for a beam energy of 5.4 kcal/mol. The sticking coefficient generally decreases with surface temperature to a value of 0.05 at 700 K, but, for a 5.4 kcal/mol beam, it exhibits a relative minimum near 300 K. The reflection coefficient of NH₃, for an angle of incidence of 49°, increases with temperature and incident beam energy in agreement with the sticking measurements. The TPD peak positions, sticking and reflection data are all well reproduced by a three-state model based on simple kinetics. The model assumes that NH₃ initially traps in a molecular state and that dissociation occurs by thermal activation into an intermediate state. At no temperature is the sticking probability enhanced by increasing the kinetic energy of the incident molecules and there is no evidence for a direct dissociation channel which has a translational energy barrier less than 5.4 kcal/mol.