Co adsorption on potassium promoted Fe(110)

CO adsorption on potassium covered Fe(110) has been studied using UPS, XPS, AES and flash desorption. It was found that CO adsorbs molecularly at room temperature with a larger binding energy than on clean Fe(110). The CO saturation coverage increases and the sticking coefficient decreases with increasing potassium coverage. On heating, the probability of adsorbed CO dissociating increases with the amount of potassium present. The UPS spectra show that the CO 4σ peak is shifted by 0.8 eV to higher binding energies on Fe(110) + K and that at 21.2 eV the peak due to the 1π + 5σ orbitals is split into a double peak. The catalytic relevance of the measurements is discussed with reference to the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.