Adsorption vibration modes

Figure Bl.22.6. Raman spectra in the C-H stretching region from 2-butanol (left frame) and 2-butanethiol (right), each either as bulk liquid (top traces) or adsorbed on a rough silver electrode surface (bottom). An analysis of the relative intensities of the different vibrational modes led to tire proposed adsorption structures depicted in the corresponding panels [53], This example illustrates the usefiilness of Raman spectroscopy for the detennination of adsorption geometries, but also points to its main limitation, namely the need to use rough silver surfaces to achieve adequate signal-to-noise levels.

Figure Bl.25.12 illustrates the two scattering modes for a hypothetical adsorption system consisting of an atom on a metal [3]. The stretch vibration of the atom perpendicular to the surface is accompanied by a change m dipole moment the bending mode parallel to the surface is not. As explained above, the EELS spectrum of electrons scattered in the specular direction detects only the dipole-active vibration. The more isotropically scattered electrons, however, undergo impact scattering and excite both vibrational modes. Note that the comparison of EELS spectra recorded in specular and off-specular direction yields infomiation about the orientation of an adsorbed molecule.

The reaction coordinate that describes the adsorption process is the vibration between the atom and the surface. Strictly speaking, the adsorbed atom has three vibrational modes, one perpendicular to the surface, corresponding to the reaction coordinate, and two parallel to the surface. Usually the latter two vibrations - also called frustrated translational modes - are very soft, meaning that k T hv. Associative (nondissociative) adsorption furthermore usually occurs without an energy barrier, and we will therefore assume that A = 0. Hence we can now write the transition state expression for the rate of direct adsorption of an atom via this transition state, applying the same method as used above for the indirect adsorption. 

In general a nonlinear molecule with N atoms has three translational, three rotational, and 3N-6 vibrational degrees of freedom in the gas phase, which reduce to three frustrated vibrational modes, three frustrated rotational modes, and 3N-6 vibrational modes, minus the mode which is the reaction coordinate. For a linear molecule with N atoms there are three translational, two rotational, and 3N-5 vibrational degrees of freedom in the gas phase, and three frustrated vibrational modes, two frustrated rotational modes, and 3N-5 vibrational modes, minus the reaction coordinate, on the surface. Thus, the transition state for direct adsorption of a CO molecule consists of two frustrated translational modes, two frustrated rotational modes, and one vibrational mode. In this case the third frustrated translational mode vanishes since it is the reaction coordinate. More complex molecules may also have internal rotational levels, which further complicate the picture. It is beyond the scope of this book to treat such systems. 

The surface selection rule operates in addition to the normal IR selection rules in determining which vibrational modes are observed. As a result of the SSR the relative intensities of the fundamental IR adsorption bands of an adsorbed species can be used to give information on the orientation of the species with respect to the surface. Both S- and P-polarised light interact equally with the randomly oriented solution species. 

Here it is our intention to show that for a system constituted by substrate phonons and laterally interacting low-frequency adsorbate vibrations which are harmonically coupled with the substrate, the states can be subclassified into independent groups by die wave vector K referring to the first Brillouin zone of the adsorbate lattice.138 As the phonon state density of a substrate many-fold exceeds the vibrational mode density of an adsorbate, for each adsorption mode there is a quasicontinuous phonon spectrum in every group of states determined by K (see Fig. 4.1). Consequently, we can regard the low-frequency collectivized mode of the adsorbate, t /(K), as a resonance vibration with the renormalized frequency and the reciprocal lifetime 7k-... 

For this case, the primary change that is observable in the IR spectrum is due to changes in the vibrahonal frequencies of the probe molecule due to modificahons in bond energies. This can lead to changes in bond force constants and the normal mode frequencies of the probe molecule. In some cases, where the symmetry of the molecule is perturbed, un-allowed vibrational modes in the unperturbed molecule can be come allowed and therefore observed. A good example of this effect is with the adsorption of homonuclear diatomic molecules, such as N2 and H2 (see Section 4.5.6.8). 

Non-noble metals such as Ni, Co, Mo, W, Fe, Ag and Cu have been added to zeolites for use in catalysis. In addition to CO, nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to be a good adsorbate for probing the electronic environment of these metals. When NO chemisorbs on these metals, it can form mononitrosyl (M-NO) and dinitrosyl species (ON-M-NO). The monontrosyl species has a single absorption band and the dinitrosyl species has two bands due to asymmetric and symmetric vibrational modes of the (ON-M-NO) moiety. Again, there have been many studies reported in the literature on the use of NO and/or CO adsorption on non-noble metals supported on zeolites and they are too numerous to list here. Several examples have been selected and summarized to provide the reader with the type of information that can be provided by this method. 

Adsorption of CD on palladium showed distinct differences from that on platinum, which is already apparent from the spectra compared in Fig. 33. The ATR spectra did not show any indication of the presence of a species covalently bound by Pt C ci-bond (a-hydrogen abstraction, species 2 in the case of platinum). The strongly adsorbed 7i-bonded flat species (1 and T) were found to be more favored on platinum, whereas on palladium the tilted, nitrogen lone-pair-bound species (3 ) were dominant. Furthermore, the comparative study showed that CD is more strongly adsorbed on platinum than on palladium, indicated by the more prominent shift of the vibrational modes with respect to the free molecule on platinum than on palladium. 

Stable adsorption complexes are characterized by local minima on the potential energy hypersurface. The reaction pathway between two stable minima is determined by computation of a transition state structure, a saddle point on the potential energy hypersurface, characterized by a single imaginary vibrational mode. The Cartesian displacements of atoms that participate in this vibration characterize movements of these atoms along the reaction coordinate between sorption complexes. 

Figure 24.2 Comparison of HREELS spectra recorded after the adsorption of 0.4 L CO on (a) clean V(110) and on (b) carbide-modified V(110) surface at 80 K. The v(CO) vibrational modes are detected at above 1000 cm 1. The low-frequency modes, at 465 and 610 cm-1 in spectrum (a) and at 375 cm 1 in spectrum (b), are related to the v(V-O) and v(V-C)...

The identification of species adsorbed on surfaces has preoccupied chemists and physicists for many years. Of all the techniques used to determine the structure of molecules, interpretation of the vibrational spectrum probably occupies first place. This is also true for adsorbed molecules, and identification of the vibrational modes of chemisorbed and physisorbed species has contributed greatly to our understanding of both the underlying surface and the adsorbed molecules. The most common method for determining the vibrational modes of a molecule is by direct observation of adsorptions in the infrared region of the spectrum. Surface spectroscopy is no exception and by far the largest number of publications in the literature refer to the infrared spectroscopy of adsorbed molecules. Up to this time, the main approach has been the use of conventional transmission IR and work in this area up to 1967 has been summarized in three books. The first chapter in this volume, by Hair, presents a necessarily brief overview of this work with emphasis upon some of the developments that have occurred since 1967. 

SERS due to pyridine on Au electrode surfaces appears to arise from the adsorption of pyridine in or on surface carbon present after the oxidation-reduction cycle [25,26], Anodically roughened Ag electrode surfaces, which were subsequently cathodically cleaned, exhibited no SERS from pyridine. This confirms that the SERS-active phase is carbon-pyridine and not pyridine alone. In ultrahigh vacuum, SERS can be induced in pyridine by coadsorbing pyridine with CO [27], The effect depends on the type of silver surface and involves shifts in the peak positions and intensities of some of the vibrational modes. SERS peaks were not observed at 2100 cm 1 at the position of the C O stretching mode of CO. A possible interpretation is that surface complexes are formed between pyridine and CO molecules at the active or hot sites on the silver surface. 

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