Large amplitude excitations traveling along the interface in bistable catalytic methanol oxidation on Rh(110)

A PEEM image and an x–t-plot showing traveling interface modulations in a bistable surface reaction.

Tuning excitability by alloying: the Rh(111)/Ni/H2 + O2 system

The dynamic behavior of the O2 + H2 reaction on a Rh(111) surface alloyed with Ni has been studied in the 10(-5) mbar range using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) as a spatial resolving method. For T = 773 K and p(O2) = 5 × 10(-5) mbar the bifurcation diagram has been mapped out as a function of the Ni coverage in a range of 0 ML ≤ Θ(Ni) ≥ 1.3 ML. A critical Ni coverage of Θ(Ni,crit) = 0.13 monolayers (ML) is required for excitability. In the excitable parameter range pulse trains and irregular chemical wave patterns are found. Whereas the propagation speed of the pulses exhibits no clear-cut dependence on the Ni coverage, the frequency of the local PEEM intensity oscillations increases linearly with Ni coverage in the range from Θ(Ni) = 0.13 ML to Θ(Ni) = 1.3 ML.

Dynamics of ultrathin V-oxide layers on Rh(111) in catalytic oxidation of ammonia and CO

Catalytic oxidation of ammonia and CO has been studied in the 10⁻⁴ mbar range using a catalyst prepared by depositing ultra-thin vanadium oxide layers on Rh(111) (θ_V ≈ 0.2 MLE).

Spectromicroscopy of pulses transporting alkali metal in a surface reaction

The NO + H2 reaction on a potassium promoted Rh(110) surface is shown to sustain the formation of spatio-temporal periodic patterns leading to mass transport phenomena. The excitation of pulses and the mass transport mechanism are studied in the 10(-7) and 10(-6) mbar pressure range, with the potassium coverage varying between θK = 0.05 and θK = 0.12 ML. Using spectroscopic photoemission and spectroscopic low energy electron microscopy (SPELEEM) as well as related microprobe diffraction techniques, we show that the excitation mechanism comprises a cyclic structural transformation: K + O-coadsorbate → (2 × 1)-N → c(2 × 4)-2O,N → K + O coadsorbate. Laterally resolved spectroscopy demonstrates that potassium is accumulated in front of the nitrogen pulses, suggesting that adsorbed nitrogen acts as a diffusion barrier for potassium.

Mass transport of alkali metal with pulses in a surface reaction

It is shown that the pulses which develop in the NO+H2 reaction on an alkali promoted Rh(110) surface reaction can transport alkali metal. This leads to the accumulation of a substantial alkali-metal concentration in the collision area of pulse trains. Realistic simulations revealed that the effect is due to the strong energetic interactions of the alkali metal with coadsorbates, i.e., the attractive interaction with coadsorbed oxygen and the effectively repulsive interaction with coadsorbed nitrogen.

Nucleation of chemical waves at defects: A mirror electron microscopy study of catalytic CO oxidation on Pt(110)

Using mirror electron microscopy (MEM) as spatially resolving method the nucleation of chemical waves in catalytic CO oxidation on a Pt(110) surface was investigated in the 10(-5) mbar range. The waves nucleated at an electrically insulating impurity of approximately 15 microm diameter (the "defect") which most likely represents a diamond particle left over from the polishing process. Nucleation events are initiated by a dynamic process in a boundary layer of approximately 1 microm width between the defect and the surrounding Pt(110) surface. Depending on the parameter choice the fronts/pulses do not escape from the vicinity of the defect and later on die out or, in a supercritical nucleation, propagate across the surface. Asymmetric nucleation leads to spiral waves which remain pinned to the defect. The defect has a kind of steering effect causing chemical waves to collide exactly at the defect. This steering effect is evidently due to a distortion of the substrate lattice in the vicinity of the defect.

Fluctuation-induced phase transition in a spatially extended model for catalytic CO oxidation

A reaction-diffusion master equation has been introduced in order to model the bistable CO oxidation on single crystal metal surfaces at high pressure where the diffusion length becomes small and local fluctuations are important. Analytical solutions can be found in a reduced one-component nonlinear master equation after applying the Weiss mean-field approximation together with the adiabatic elimination of oxygen. It is shown that the Weiss mean-field approximation predicts a symmetry-breaking bifurcation associated with a phase transition. The corresponding stationary solutions of the nonlinear master equation are supported by Gillespie-type Monte Carlo simulations.

Front Waves in the NO + NH3 Reaction on Pt{100}

In the present work, we spatially extended a brand new kinetic mechanism of the NO + NH3 reaction on Pt{100} to simulate the experimentally observed spatiotemporal traveling waves. The kinetic mechanism developed by Irurzun, Mola, and Imbihl (IMI model) improves the former model developed by Lombardo, Fink, and Imbihl (LFI model) by replacing several elementary steps to take into account experimental evidence published since the LFI model appeared. The IMI model achieves a better agreement with the experimentally observed dependence of the oscillation period on temperature. In the present work, the IMI model is extended by considering Fickean diffusion and coupling via the gas phase. Traveling waves propagating across the surface are obtained at realistic values of temperature and partial pressure. A transition from amplitude to phase waves is observed, induced either by temperature or by the gas global coupling strength. The traveling waves simulated in the present work are not associated with fixed defects, in agreement with experimental evidence of spiral centers capable of moving on the surface. Also, the IMI model adequately predicts the presence of macroscopic oscillations in the partial pressures of the reactants coexisting with front wave patterns on the surface.

Catalytic ammonia oxidation on platinum: mechanism and catalyst restructuring at high and low pressure

Catalytic ammonia oxidation over platinum has been studied experimentally from UHV up to atmospheric pressure with polycrystalline Pt and with the Pt single crystal orientations (533), (443), (865), and (100). Density functional theory (DFT) calculations explored the reaction pathways on Pt(111) and Pt(211). It was shown, both in theory and experimentally, that ammonia is activated by adsorbed oxygen, i.e. by O(ad) or by OH(ad). In situ XPS up to 1 mbar showed the existence of NH(x)(x= 0,1,2,3) intermediates on Pt(533). Based on a mechanism of ammonia activation via the interaction with O(ad)/OH(ad) a detailed and a simplified mathematical model were formulated which reproduced the experimental data semiquantitatively. From transient experiments in vacuum performed in a transient analysis of products (TAP) reactor it was concluded that N(2)O is formed by recombination of two NO(ad) species and by a reaction between NO(ad) and NH(x,ad)(x= 0,1,2) fragments. Reaction-induced morphological changes were studied with polycrystalline Pt in the mbar range and with stepped Pt single crystals as model systems in the range 10(-5)-10(-1) mbar.

Adsorbate coverages and surface reactivity in methanol oxidation over Cu(110): An in situ photoelectron spectroscopy study

The adsorbate species present during partial oxidation of methanol on a Cu(110) surface have been investigated in the 10(-5) mbar range with in situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and rate measurements. Two reaction intermediates were identified, methoxy with a C 1s binding energy (BE) of 285.4 eV and formate with a C 1s BE of 287.7 eV. The c(2x2) overlayer formed under reaction conditions is assigned to formate. Two states of adsorbed oxygen were found characterized by O 1s BE's of 529.6 and 528.9 eV, respectively. On the inactive surface present at low T around 300-350 K formate dominates while methoxy is almost absent. Ignition of the reaction correlates with a decreasing formate coverage. A large hysteresis of approximately 200 K occurs in T-cycling experiments whose correlation with adsorbate species was studied with varying oxygen and methanol partial pressures. The two branches of the hysteresis differ mainly in the amount of adsorbed oxygen, the methoxy species, and a carbonaceous species. Methoxy covers only a minor part of the catalytic surface reaching at most 20%. Above 650 K the surface is largely adsorbate-free.

Theoretical analysis of internal fluctuations and bistability in CO oxidation on nanoscale surfaces

The bistable CO oxidation on a nanoscale surface is characterized by a limited number of reacting molecules on the catalytic area. Internal fluctuations due to finite-size effects are studied by the master equation with a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism for CO oxidation. Analytical solutions can be found in a reduced one-component model after the adiabatic elimination of one variable which in our case is the oxygen coverage. It is shown that near the critical point, with decreasing surface area, one cannot distinguish between two macroscopically stable stationary states. This is a consequence of the large fluctuations in the coverage which occur on a fast time scale. Under these conditions, the transition times between the macroscopic states also are no longer separated from the short-time scale of the coverage fluctuations as is the case for large surface areas and far away from the critical point. The corresponding stationary solutions of the probability distribution and the mean first passage times calculated in the reduced model are supported by numerics of the full two-component model.

K and mixed K+O adlayers on Rh(110)

The evolution of the structure of the adlayers and the substrate during adsorption of K and coadsorption of K and O on Rh(110) is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and low-energy electron diffraction. The K adsorption at temperature above 450 K leads to consecutive (1x4), (1x3), and (1x2) missing-row reconstructions for coverage up to 0.12 ML, which revert back to (1x3) and (1x4) with increasing coverage up to 0.21 ML. The coadsorption of different oxygen amount at T>450 K and eventually following reduction-reoxidation cycles led to a wealth of coadsorbate structures, all involving substrate missing-row-type reconstructions, some including segmentation of Rh rows along the [110] direction. The presence of K stabilizes the (1x2) missing-row reconstruction, which facilitates the formation of a great variety of very open (10x2)-type reconstructions at high oxygen coverage, not observed in the single adsorbate systems.

Promoter-induced reactive phase separation in surface reactions

Promoters are adsorbed mobile species which do not directly participate in a catalytic surface reaction, but can influence its rate. Often, they are characterized by strong attractive interactions with one of the reactants. We show that these conditions lead to a Turing instability of the uniform state and to the formation of reaction-induced periodic concentration patterns. Experimentally such patterns are observed in catalytic water formation on a Rh(110) surface in the presence of coadsorbed potassium.

A realistic kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of the faceting of a Pt(110) surface under reaction conditions

The faceting process on Pt(110) is studied with the help of a kinetic Monte Carlo model taking into account realistic Pt-Pt, Pt-CO, and Pt-O interactions. The activation energies of the allowed atomic steps are estimated using available computational and experimental data. The model well reproduces the region in the parameter space where faceting occurs. Under kinetic instability conditions, the simulated faceted pattern forms a periodic hill and valley structure with a lateral periodicity of approximately 140-170 A, which is comparable with experimental data. The simulations reproduce the development of faceting on a realistic time scale.

Critical behavior in an atomistic model for a bistable surface reaction: CO oxidation with rapid CO diffusion

We analyze critical behavior associated with the loss of bistability for an atomistic model for CO oxidation on surfaces in the limit of infinite diffusion of CO. The model includes infinite nearest-neighbor repulsions between adsorbed immobile O. We use a "hybrid" treatment incorporating a lattice-gas description of the O adlayer, but tracking just the number of adsorbed CO (which are randomly distributed on non-O sites). The critical exponents obtained from a finite-size-scaling analysis on LxL site surfaces with periodic boundary conditions show that the "hybrid" reaction model belongs to the mean-field universality class, despite strong spatial correlations in the O adlayer. We also quantify finite-size effects in the global bifurcation diagram, revealing a significant shift of the bistable region with decreasing system size. Our study elucidates fluctuation effects observed in experiments of CO oxidation on the nanoscale facets of metal-field emitter tips.

Catalysis on microstructured bimetallic surfaces

Microstructured bimetallic Pt/Rh and Pt/Ti surfaces have been employed to study the dynamics of catalytic NO reduction and the O(2)+H(2) reaction at low pressure (p<10(-3) mbar). Photoelectron emission microscopy and scanning photoelectron microscopy were used as spatially resolved in situ methods to image the local work function changes and to identify chemical changes in the substrate and in the adsorbate layer. It is shown that diffusional coupling leads to dynamic effects which are dependent on the macroscopic size (&mgr;m range). With alkali metals on the surface, stationary patterns form whose mechanism of formation has been studied in detail. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Catalytic CO oxidation on nanoscale Pt facets: effect of interfacet CO diffusion on bifurcation and fluctuation behavior

We present lattice-gas modeling of the steady-state behavior in CO oxidation on the facets of nanoscale metal clusters, with coupling via interfacet CO diffusion. The model incorporates the key aspects of the reaction process, such as rapid CO mobility within each facet and strong nearest-neighbor repulsion between adsorbed O. The former justifies our use of a "hybrid" simulation approach treating the CO coverage as a mean-field parameter. For an isolated facet, there is one bistable region where the system can exist in either a reactive state (with high oxygen coverage) or a (nearly CO-poisoned) inactive state. Diffusion between two facets is shown to induce complex multistability in the steady states of the system. The bifurcation diagram exhibits two regions with bistabilities due to the difference between adsorption properties of the facets. We explore the role of enhanced fluctuations in the proximity of a cusp bifurcation point associated with one facet in producing transitions between stable states on that facet, as well as their influence on fluctuations on the other facet. The results are expected to shed more light on the reaction kinetics for supported catalysts.