Kinetic model for Eley–Rideal and hot atom reactions between H atoms on metal surfaces

Abstract

A simple kinetic model is used to describe the interaction of H and D atomic beams with H- and D-covered metal surfaces. The atoms incident from the gas phase can have a direct Eley–Rideal reaction with an adsorbate, reflect, penetrate into the bulk, knock an adsorbate out of its binding site, or trap to form a hot atom. These hot mobile atoms can go on to react with other adsorbates, or eventually relax and stick. A coarse-graining approach, which takes advantage of the large difference between the time scales for the kinetics experiments and the reaction dynamics, allows us to derive relatively simple kinetic equations for reaction rates and coverages. The approach is similar to a kinetic random walk model developed by Küppers and co-workers [J. Phys. Chem. 109, 4071 (1998)] except that our equations can be used to derive analytical expressions for saturation coverages, rates, and yields. The model is applied to the case of H atom reactions on a Ni(100) surface, and a detailed comparison is made with both experimental and quasiclassical studies.