Particle size chemisorption behavior

Surface heterogeneity may merely be a reflection of different types of chemisorption and chemisorption sites, as in the examples of Figs. XVIII-9 and XVIII-10. The presence of various crystal planes, as in powders, leads to heterogeneous adsorption behavior the effect may vary with particle size, as in the case of O2 on Pd [107]. Heterogeneity may be deliberate many catalysts consist of combinations of active surfaces, such as bimetallic alloys. In this last case, the surface properties may be intermediate between those of the pure metals (but one component may be in surface excess as with any solution) or they may be distinctly different. In this last case, one speaks of various effects ensemble, dilution, ligand, and kinetic (see Ref. 108 for details). 

Photoemission experiments with flat surfaces revealed that atoms of lower coordination may have a different population of d-orbitals and a different local density of states (138-140). These effects have been also predicted and analyzed theoretically (94-97, 136, 137), and should be always considered. The only question is whether they manifest themselves in the chemisorption and catalytic behavior. In any case, the impression is that by making metal particles small in size, one can cause the electronic structure of a certain fraction of the metal atoms to vary more than by making a bulk solution alloy. 

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