Photochemistry of Formaldehyde Adsorbed on CO-Saturated Cu(100)

Crotonaldehyde Formation from Decomposition of ICH2CH2OH on Powdered TiO2

Adsorption and reactions of 2-iodoethanol on TiO(2) have been studied by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. ICH(2)CH(2)OH possesses two reactive centers of C-I and C-OH. It is found that its decomposition leads to the formation of crotonaldehyde on TiO(2). A reaction sequence of ICH(2)CH(2)OH --> ICH(2)CH(2)O- --> CH(3)CHO --> CH(3)CH=CH-CHO is proposed. Although the decomposition routes of C(2)H(5)OH and C(2)H(5)I, both forming C(2)H(5)O- on TiO(2), suggest that -OCH(2)CH(2)O- may play a role in the crotonaldehyde formation, reaction of HOCH(2)CH(2)OH on TiO(2) shows that this is not the case. Adsorbed H(2)O is formed in the ICH(2)CH(2)OH decomposition on TiO(2); however, it is found that ICH=CH(2), possibly generated by ICH(2)CH(2)OH dehydration, is not important in the crotonaldehyde formation.

Adsorption and Reactions of ClCH2CH2OH on Clean and Oxygen-Precovered Cu(100): Experimental and Computational Studies

Temperature-programmed reaction/desorption, reflection-absorption infrared spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations have been employed to investigate the adsorption and thermal reactions of ClCH2CH2OH on clean and oxygen-precovered Cu(100) surfaces. On Cu(100), ClCH2CH2OH is mainly adsorbed reversibly. The ClCH2CH2OH molecules at a submonolayer coverage can change their orientation with increasing temperature. However, on oxygen-precovered Cu(100), all of the adsorbed ClCH2CH2OH molecules below 0.5 langmuir exposures completely dissociate to generate ethylene and acetaldehyde via the intermediate of ClCH2CH2O-. The computational studies predict that the ClCH2CH2O- is most likely to be adsorbed at the 4-fold hollow sites of Cu(100), with its C-O bond only slightly titled away from the surface normal and with a gauche conformation with respect to the C-C bond. The hollow-site ClCH2CH2O- has an adsorption energy that is 4.4 and 19.2 kcal x mol(-1) lower than that of the ClCH2CH2O- bonded at the bridging and atop sites, respectively. No significant effect of precovered oxygen on the ClCH2CH2O- bonding geometry and infrared band frequencies has been observed, as compared with the case without oxygen.