Adsorption of CO on metals

One of the classic examples of an area in which vibrational spectroscopy has contributed to the understanding of the surface chemistry of an adsorbate is that of the molecular adsorption of CO on metallic surfaces. Adsorbed CO usually gives rise to strong absorptions in both the IR and HREELS spectra at the (C-O) stretching frequency. The metal-carbon stretching mode ( 400 cm-1) is usually also accessible to HREELS. 

Chemical shift and lateral coupling are the most striking effects in the adsorption of CO on metal surfaces [45]. Chemical shift applies to the frequency displacements caused by CO-metal interactions, while lateral coupling refers to adsorbate-adsorbate interactions. 

Terminal-CO vibrating at 2123 cm, which is stabilized only at <160 K, detects the presence of Nf sites [3]. CO adsorption on metal ions is weak, due to the low ti/ct bonding contribution. Thus, application of low temperature regimes is essential for irreversible adsorption of CO on metal cations [32]. The presence of Ni sites indicates that the catalyst examined is incompletely reduced under the conditions applied. Earlier studies [3] have consistently found, that the complete reduction of Ni ions on alumina is difficult to accomplish. Incomplete reduction of a number of transition metal ions, including Ni, seems to be the trend on alumina and alike electronically "hard" support materials [33]. According to Pearson [33], the electronic hardness of a metal oxide means the occurrence of weakly polarizable metal-oxygen bonds. 

The adsorption of CO on metal single crystal faces has been studied extensively. The literature is now so vast that it cannot be reviewed here. The reader can obtain a flavor of this work from the study by Yamada et al. who examined the exchange reaction +... 

The alkali promotion of CO dissociation is substrate-specific, in the sense that it has been observed only for a restricted number of substrates where CO does not dissociate on the clean surface, specifically on Na, K, Cs/Ni( 100),38,47,48 Na/Rh49 and K, Na/Al(100).43 This implies that the reactivity of the clean metal surface for CO dissociation plays a dominant role. The alkali induced increase in the heat of CO adsorption (not higher than 60 kJ/mol)50 and the decrease in the activation energy for dissociation of the molecular state (on the order of 30 kJ/mol)51 are usually not sufficient to induce dissociative adsorption of CO on surfaces which strongly favor molecular adsorption (e. g. Pd or Pt). 

The adsorption of C02 on metal surfaces is rather weak, with the exception of Fe, and no molecular or dissociative adsorption takes place at room temperature on clean metal surfaces. At low temperatures, lower than 180 to 300 K, a chemisorbed COf" species has been observed by UPS6 on Fe(lll) and Ni(110) surfaces, which acts as a precursor for further dissociation to CO and adsorbed atomic oxygen. A further step of CO dissociation takes place on Fe(l 11) above 300 to 390 K. 

The effect of alkali addition on the adsorption of NO on metal surfaces is of great importance due to the need of development of efficient catalysts for NO reduction in stationary and automotive exhaust systems. Similar to CO, NO always behaves as an electron acceptor in presence of alkalis. 

The effect of alkali presence on the adsorption of oxygen on metal surfaces has been extensively studied in the literature, as alkali promoters are used in catalytic reactions of technological interest where oxygen participates either directly as a reactant (e.g. ethylene epoxidation on silver) or as an intermediate (e.g. NO+CO reaction in automotive exhaust catalytic converters). A large number of model studies has addressed the oxygen interaction with alkali modified single crystal surfaces of Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd, Ni, Ru, Fe, Mo, W and Au.6... 

In diatomic molecules such as N2, O2, and CO the valence electrons are located on the 5cr, Ijt and 2jt orbitals, as shown by Fig. 6.6. [Note that the 5cr level is below the Ijt level due to interaction with the 4cr level, which was not included in the figure.] In general, the Ijt level is filled and sufficiently low in energy that the interaction with a metal surface is primarily though the 5cr and 2jt orbitals. Note that the former is bonding and the latter antibonding for the molecule. We discuss the adsorption of CO on d metals. CO is the favorite test molecule of surface scientists, as it is stable and shows a rich chemistry upon adsorption that is conveniently tracked by vibrational spectroscopy. 

CO oxidation is often quoted as a structure-insensitive reaction, implying that the turnover frequency on a certain metal is the same for every type of site, or for every crystallographic surface plane. Figure 10.7 shows that the rates on Rh(lll) and Rh(llO) are indeed similar on the low-temperature side of the maximum, but that they differ at higher temperatures. This is because on the low-temperature side the surface is mainly covered by CO. Hence the rate at which the reaction produces CO2 becomes determined by the probability that CO desorbs to release sites for the oxygen. As the heats of adsorption of CO on the two surfaces are very similar, the resulting rates for CO oxidation are very similar for the two surfaces. However, at temperatures where the CO adsorption-desorption equilibrium lies more towards the gas phase, the surface reaction between O and CO determines the rate, and here the two rhodium surfaces show a difference (Fig. 10.7). The apparent structure insensitivity of the CO oxidation appears to be a coincidence that is not necessarily caused by equality of sites or ensembles thereof on the different surfaces. 

Derive the Langmuir adsorption isotherm for the molecular adsorption of CO on a metal with equivalent adsorption sites. Do the same for the dissociative adsorption of H2, and, finally, for the case when CO and H2 adsorb together on the same surface. 

Why does CO dissociate readily on iron and not at all on platinum even though the heats of adsorption of CO on these metals are similar ... 

The adsorption of CO on Pt is perhaps the most throughly studied system using vibrational spectroscopy. Studies have been made using both supported catalysts (2-5) and single crystals (5-10). Sample environments have included gas phase, vacuum, and aqueous solution (11-13). The similarities between many of these results have led to a remarkably unified understanding of CO adsorption phenomena in all three environments. Features which are relevant to further studies of the metal/electrolyte interface are summarized briefly ... 

Table 4. Initial (A) and integral (B) enthalpy of adsorption of CO on polycrystalline evaporated metal films (kJ mol-1) (Ref.31))...

The vertical IPs of CO deserve special attention because carbon monoxide is a reference compound for the application of photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) to the study of adsorption of gases on metallic surfaces. Hence, the IP of free CO is well-known and has been very accurately measured [62]. A number of very efficient theoretical methods specially devoted to the calculation of ionization energies can be found in the literature. Most of these are related to the so-called random phase approximation (RPA) [63]. The most common formulations result in the equation-of-motion coupled-cluster (EOM-CC) equations [59] and the one-particle Green s function equations [64,65] or similar formalisms [65,66]. These are powerful ways of dealing with IP calculations because the ionization energies are directly obtained as roots of the equations, and the repolarization or relaxation of the MOs upon ionization is implicitly taken into account [59]. In the present work we remain close to the Cl procedures so that a separate calculation is required for each state of the cation and of the ground state of the neutral to obtain the IP values. 

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