Recombination of Hydrogen, Nitrogen and Oxygen Atoms on Copper and Silver Single Crystal Surfaces

Abstract

Abstract Recombination of hydrogen atoms, nitrogen atoms and oxygen atoms was carried out on single crystal surfaces of copper and silver subjected to various surface pre-treatments. With both the recombination of hydrogen atoms and that of nitrogen atoms, copper surfaces electrolytically polished have always higher activity than those chemically polished. The Cu(100) surface chemically etched by ammonium persulfate was more active than that etched by nitric acid for both hydrogen atoms and nitrogen atoms, whereas with the Cu(110) the opposite order of activity was obtained. For both silver and copper, no evidence was found to show the different order of activity between the recombination of hydrogen atoms and that of nitrogen atoms. Concerning the recombination of oxygen atoms on single crystal surfaces of silver, the (110) face was found to be more active than the (100) face in accord with the result of our earlier work about the recombination of hydrogen atoms on single crystal surfaces of copper.