Characterisation and O2 titration of CO islands on Pt 100: helium atom scattering and reactive sticking probability measurements

Abstract

Abstract Thermal energy atom scattering (TEAS) has been used simultaneously with molecular beam adsorption and thermal desorption to probe the lateral distribution of CO on a Pt 100 single-crystal surface. On the initial hex-R phase at 350 K, (1 × 1) island growth occurs at a constant local coverage ( θ (1 × 1) CO ) of 0.4 ML. However, during desorption the surface remains wholly in the (1 × 1) state until ( θ (1 × 1) CO ) ≈ 0.25 ML. Subsequent reconstruction to hex occurs at a constant local coverage of 0.19 ML in the remaining (1 × 1) domains. Hysteresis is not observed for the pre-prepared (1 × 1) surface, on which a random CO distribution is observed during adsorption. The scattering cross-section Σ for a single CO molecule on the hex-R and (1 × 1) surfaces at 350 K has been determined as 71 ± 10 and 130 ± 18A 2 respectively. The behaviour during oxidation of (1 × 1)-CO islands on the initial hex-R surface prepared by either adsorption or desorption is found to be consistent with the TEAS data. The first sticking probabilities for O 2 and CO on the CO ad -freed and O ad -freed (1 × 1) phase of Pt 100 are also reported.