Electron-surface interaction

A third mechanism, first observed in gas-phase electron-impact scattering, has been referred to as negative-ion resonance. In this process, an electron is trapped, within 10 s, inside the molecule in a negative-ion state. For chemisorbed molecules, however, the adsorbate-substrate chemical bond and the electron-surface interactions can dramatically alter the resonance properties. Hence, for HREELS at metal surfaces, this mechanism is quite rare it will not be treated further in this article. 

We should clarify here that the above cited studies are largely exploratory and the role of each parameter in reaction specificity is currently unclear. They show, however, the need for a fundamental understanding of molecular and electronic surface interactions that determine electrocatalytic as well as catalytic specificity. Thus, adsorption isotherms, surface states, molecular configurations, electronic distributions, dipole formation, and bond hybridization should be explored for well-characterized catalysts and model reactions in the presence and in the absence of an electric field. 

When adsorbed molecules are bombarded with electrons, local heating effects occur that lead to thermal desorption. In addition, there is a small but finite probability that electrons in the chemical bonds that hold the adsorbate to the surface will be excited into a repulsive state, leading to the desorption of that molecule either as a neutral species or as a molecular ion. Desorption of neutral species under electron-beam bombardment is frequently observed in studies of electron-surface interactions. A fraction of the adsorbed molecules will be ionized. These can be detected as positive ions, and the spatial distribution of this ion flux can be imaged on a fluorescent screen. Electron-stimulated desorption ion-angular distribution (ESDIAD) [56, 61, 64, 79-84] is the name of the technique that is used to learn about the site symmetry and orientation of adsorbed molecular species, since the molecular ions are usually emitted in the directions of their chemical bonds with the surface and with an unchanged orientation with respect to the orientation of the molecule when it was adsorbed on the surface. 

Protein adsorption has been studied with a variety of techniques such as ellipsome-try [107,108], ESCA [109], surface forces measurements [102], total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRE) [103,110], electron microscopy [111], and electrokinetic measurement of latex particles [112,113] and capillaries [114], The TIRE technique has recently been adapted to observe surface diffusion [106] and orientation [IIS] in adsorbed layers. These experiments point toward the significant influence of the protein-surface interaction on the adsorption characteristics [105,108,110]. A very important interaction is due to the hydrophobic interaction between parts of the protein and polymeric surfaces [18], although often electrostatic interactions are also influential [ 116]. Protein desorption can be affected by altering the pH [117] or by the introduction of a complexing agent [118]. 

Energetic particles interacting can also modify the structure and/or stimulate chemical processes on a surface. Absorbed particles excite electronic and/or vibrational (phonon) states in the near-surface region. Some surface scientists investigate the fiindamental details of particle-surface interactions, while others are concerned about monitormg the changes to the surface induced by such interactions. Because of the importance of these interactions, the physics involved in both surface analysis and surface modification are discussed in this section. 

Surface photochemistry can drive a surface chemical reaction in the presence of laser irradiation that would not otherwise occur. The types of excitations that initiate surface photochemistry can be roughly divided into those that occur due to direct excitations of the adsorbates and those that are mediated by the substrate. In a direct excitation, the adsorbed molecules are excited by the laser light, and will directly convert into products, much as they would in the gas phase. In substrate-mediated processes, however, the laser light acts to excite electrons from the substrate, which are often referred to as hot electrons . These hot electrons then interact with the adsorbates to initiate a chemical reaction. 

Whitten J L and Pakkanen T A 1980 Chemisorption theory for metallic surfaces Electron localization and the description of surface interactions Phys. Rev. B 21 4357-67... 

Perhaps the most significant complication in the interpretation of nanoscale adhesion and mechanical properties measurements is the fact that the contact sizes are below the optical limit ( 1 t,im). Macroscopic adhesion studies and mechanical property measurements often rely on optical observations of the contact, and many of the contact mechanics models are formulated around direct measurement of the contact area or radius as a function of experimentally controlled parameters, such as load or displacement. In studies of colloids, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been used to view particle/surface contact sizes from the side to measure contact radius [3]. However, such a configuration is not easily employed in AFM and nanoindentation studies, and undesirable surface interactions from charging or contamination may arise. For adhesion studies (e.g. Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) [4] and probe-tack tests [5,6]), the probe/sample contact area is monitored as a function of load or displacement. This allows evaluation of load/area or even stress/strain response [7] as well as comparison to and development of contact mechanics theories. Area measurements are also important in traditional indentation experiments, where hardness is determined by measuring the residual contact area of the deformation optically [8J. For micro- and nanoscale studies, the dimensions of both the contact and residual deformation (if any) are below the optical limit. 

Part of a 15-nm long, 10 A tube, is given in Fig. 1. Its surface atomic structure is displayed[14], A periodic lattice is clearly seen. The cross-sectional profile was also taken, showing the atomically resolved curved surface of the tube (inset in Fig. 1). Asymmetry variations in the unit cell and other distortions in the image are attributed to electronic or mechanical tip-surface interactions[15,16]. From the helical arrangement of the tube, we find that it has zigzag configuration. 

Figure 6.14d shows the electron donation interaction (electrons are transferred from the initially fully occupied 5a molecular orbitals to the Fermi level of the metal, thus this is an electron donation interaction). Blyholder was first to discuss that CO chemisorption on transition metal involves both donation and backdonation of electrons.4 We now know both experimentally7 and theoretically96,98 that the electron backdonation mechanism is usually predominant, so that CO behaves on most transition metal surfaces as an overall electron acceptor. 

In this equation v is a phonon frequency, such that hv is approximately k, with the Debye characteristic temperature of the metal. The quantity p is the product of the density of electrons in energy at the Fermi surface, N(0), and the electron-phonon interaction energy, V. 

All of these results are consistent with the notion that surface migration of titanium oxide species Is an Important factor that contributes to the suppression of carbon monoxide chemisorption. The H2 chemisorption experiments on 1-2 ML of Ft, where no migration Is observed, strongly Indicate that electronic (bonding) Interactions are also occurring. Thus, for the tltanla system, both electronic Interactions and surface site blocking due to titanium oxide species must be considered In Interpreting SMSI effects. 

Further studies were carried out on the Pd/Mo(l 1 0), Pd/Ru(0001), and Cu/Mo(l 10) systems. The shifts in core-level binding energies indicate that adatoms in a monolayer of Cu or Pd are electronically perturbed with respect to surface atoms of Cu(lOO) or Pd(lOO). By comparing these results with those previously presented in the literature for adlayers of Pd or Cu, a simple theory is developed that explains the nature of electron donor-electron acceptor interactions in metal overlayer formation of surface metal-metal bonds leads to a gain in electrons by the element initially having the larger fraction of empty states in its valence band. This behavior indicates that the electro-negativities of the surface atoms are substantially different from those of the bulk [65]. 

The key parameters of the electronic structure of these surfaces are summarized in Table 9.3. The calculated rf-band vacancy of Pt shows no appreciable increase. Instead, there is a shght charge transfer from Co to Pt, which may be attributable to the difference in electronegativity of Pt and Co, in apparent contradiction with the substantial increase in Pt band vacancy previously reported [Mukerjee et al., 1995]. What does change systematically across these surfaces is the J-band center (s ) of Pt, which, as Fig. 9.12 demonstrates, systematically affects the reactivity of the surfaces. This correlation is consistent with the previous successes [Greeley et al., 2002 Mavrikakis et al., 1998] of the band model in describing the reactivity of various bimetallic surfaces and the effect of strain. Compressive strain lowers s, which, in turn, leads to weaker adsorbate-surface interaction, whereas expansive strain has the opposite effect. 

A substantial number of electrons are elastically scattered, and this gives rise to a strong elastic peak in the spectrum. When an electron of low energy (2-5 eY) approaches a surface, it can be scattered inelastically by two basic mechanisms, and the data obtained are dependent upon the experimental geometry - specifically the angles of the incident and the (analysed) scattered beams with respect to the surface (0 and 02 in Figure 5.47). Within a certain distance of the surface the incident electron can interact with the dipole field associated a particular surface vibration, e.g. either the vibrations of the surface atoms of the substrate itself, or one or other... 

Fig. 2. Surface temperature dependence of the vibrational excitation of NO(v = 0 — 1) in collisions with a clean Ag(lll) surface. The observed thermal activation was attributed to hot electron-hole-pair recombination transferring energy to NO vibration. This work provided some of the first strong evidence that metal electrons can interact with an adsorbate molecule strongly enough to change its vibrational quantum numbers. (See Ref. 24.)...

Fig. 10. The emerging picture of electronically nonadiabatic interactions of NO molecule scattering at a metal surfaces. Transition from the ground electronic state to an anionic state which is strongly attractive to the metal surface can be accomplished by high translational energy when vibrational excitation is low (black trajectory). When vibrational motion is highly excited, even low translational energies allow transition of the anionic state (red trajectory). Recently, Monte-Carlo wavepacket calculations have been carried out which tend to support this picture.63...

If the tip is contaminated, its apex is most likely attached to a hydrogen molecule or H atoms. As a consequence, the conductance of this tip should be much lower than that of a clean tungsten tip. Since this conductance change has not been reported, it can be concluded that the reduced 0—0 distance is not the effect of a contaminated tip. Surface-tip interactions are evaluated by calculating the interaction between the reacted surface and a tungsten cluster at low distance. Here, the calculations indicate that there is no substantial relaxation due to interactions between the two leads. Consequently, the only possibility left is that the electronic surface structure somehow changes the appearance of the oxygen positions. 

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