Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy studies of adsorbates on Pt(111): Studies of CO at high pressures and temperatures, coadsorbed with olefins and its role as a poison in ethylene hydrogenation

Abstract

High pressure high temperature CO adsorption and coadsorption with ethylene and propylene on Pt(111) was monitored in situ with infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG). At high pressures and high temperatures, CO dissociates on a Pt(111) surface to form carbon. At 400 torr CO pressure and 673K, CO modifies the Pt(111) surface through a carbonyl intermediate, and dissociates to leave carbon on the surface. SFG was used to follow the CO peak evolution from monolayer adsorption in ultra high vacuum (UHV) to 400 torr CO pressure. At this high pressure, a temperature dependence study from room temperature to 823K was carried out. Auger electron spectroscopy was used to identify carbon on the surface CO coadsorption with ethylene and CO coadsorption with propylene studies were carried out with 2-IR 1-visible SFG. With this setup, two spectral ranges covering the C-H stretch range and the CO stretch range can be monitored simultaneously. The coadsorption study with ethylene reveals that after 5L ethylene exposure on a Pt(111) surface to form ethylidyne , CO at high pressures cannot completely displace the ethylidyne from the surface. Instead, CO first adsorbs on defect sites at low pressures and then competes with ethylidyne for terrace sites at high pressures. Propylene coadsorption with CO at similar conditions shows that propylidyne undergoes conformation changes with increased CO pressure and at 1 torr, is absent from the Pt(111) surface. Experiments on CO poisoning of ethylene hydrogenation was carried by 2-IR 1-visible SFG. At 1 torr CO,10 torr ethylene and 100 torr hydrogen, CO was found to block active sites necessary for ethylene hydrogenation, Above 425K, CO desorbs from the surface to allow ethylene hydrogenation to occur. The gas phase species were monitored by gas chromatography.