Abstract
Surface structure and oxidation are key to silver-based heterogeneous catalysis. Prevention of surface reconstruction may favor electrophilic oxygen, which is believed to be the active species in silver-catalyzed oxidation. To determine whether terrace width or step geometry enables control of oxidation and concomitant reconstruction, we investigated oxidation of the topmost layer of a curved Ag(111) crystal. This crystal contains a range of terrace widths having either A- or B-type step geometries. Atomic oxygen was used to facilitate oxidation, temperature-programmed desorption quantified the extent of oxygen adsorption, and scanning tunneling microscopy characterized the formation of reconstructed areas. While A-type steps prove to have little influence, B-type steps hinder reconstruction. We attribute the difference to geometric-dependent growth mechanisms of silver oxide surface reconstructions.
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