Adsorbate Covered Metal Surfaces and Reactions on Metal Surfaces

Abstract

Adsorption on metal surfaces is one of the major topics of surface science. Stimulated by the interest in a variety of technologically important processes such as catalytic reactions and corrosion, the interaction between adsorbates and metal surfaces has been studied for a long time. Phenomena such as adsorbate bonding, dissociation, surface diffusion, ordering processes, reactions with the surface or with other adsorbates, growth of three-dimensional layers of adsorbates or of reaction products, or finally desorption were studied by a variety of techniques. Except for a few methods such as low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) [4.1] and field ion microscopy (FIM) [4.2] all of these techniques integrate over macroscopic surface areas. STM, on the other hand, provides local information on an atomic scale, both on the structure and on the electronic properties of the surface. This is particularly important for the investigation of e.g. the role of defects and impurities in surface reactions.