Potential chemisorption

It has been found ]145] that the self-assembly of thiol molecules on Au(lll) from ethanolic solution depends significantly on the electrode potential. Especially at cathodic potentials, chemisorption of thiol molecules and the development of a highly ordered structure are slowed down significantly. 

Table 3 gives results which have been obtained with evaporated metal films, indicating the type of adsorption found for various gas-metal combinations. Chemisorption on oxides also shows fast and slow effects. The situation is more complicated than for metals because both the metal ions and the oxide ions are potential chemisorption sites. Usually, oxides are prepared as powders and the concept of a clean surface is necessarily different from that for metals. It is difficult to obtain a stoichiometric oxide surface and diffusion effects are often important. The data of chemisorption on oxides is given in Table 4. 

In general, it seems more reasonable to suppose that in chemisorption specific sites are involved and that therefore definite potential barriers to lateral motion should be present. The adsorption should therefore obey the statistical thermodynamics of a localized state. On the other hand, the kinetics of adsorption and of catalytic processes will depend greatly on the frequency and nature of such surface jumps as do occur. A film can be fairly mobile in this kinetic sense and yet not be expected to show any significant deviation from the configurational entropy of a localized state. 

Chemisorption occurs when the attractive potential well is large so that upon adsorption a strong chemical bond to a surface is fonued. Chemisorption involves changes to both the molecule and surface electronic states. For example, when oxygen adsorbs onto a metal surface, a partially ionic bond is created as charge transfers from the substrate to the oxygen atom. Other chemisorbed species interact in a more covalent maimer by sharing electrons, but this still involves perturbations to the electronic system. 

Sellers H 1991 On modeling chemisorption processes with metal cluster systems. II. Model atomic potentials and site specificity of N atom chemisorption on Pd(111) Chem. Phys. Lett. 178 351-7... 

CO oxidation catalysis is understood in depth because potential surface contaminants such as carbon or sulfur are burned off under reaction conditions and because the rate of CO oxidation is almost independent of pressure over a wide range. Thus ultrahigh vacuum surface science experiments could be done in conjunction with measurements of reaction kinetics (71). The results show that at very low surface coverages, both reactants are adsorbed randomly on the surface CO is adsorbed intact and O2 is dissociated and adsorbed atomically. When the coverage by CO is more than 1/3 of a monolayer, chemisorption of oxygen is blocked. When CO is adsorbed at somewhat less than a monolayer, oxygen is adsorbed, and the two are present in separate domains. The reaction that forms CO2 on the surface then takes place at the domain boundaries. 

The potential dependence of Con Pd in AN is somewhat more marked than for Pt, and the values of C are somewhat higher. This has been related to different chemisorption of AN on Pt and Pd. As for Pt, the potential Et7=0 of Pd shifts to positive values as the amount of H2Oin AN increases. The addition of does not change the values of C and Eaa0 for Pd.797... 

The electrical double-layer structure of a Pt/DMSO interface has been investigated using the potentiostatic pulse method.805 The value of C at E = const, as well as the potential of the diffuse layer minimum, have been found to depend on time, and this has been explained by the chemisorption of DMSO dipoles on the Pt surface, whose strength depends on time. Eg=Q has been found11 at E = -0.64 V (SCE in H2O). 

Can one further enhance the performance of this classically promoted Rh catalyst by using electrochemical promotion The promoted Rh catalyst, is, after all, already deposited on YSZ and one can directly examine what additional effect may have the application of an external voltage UWR ( 1 V) and the concomitant supply (+1 V) or removal (-1 V) of O2 to or from the promoted Rh surface. The result is shown in Fig. 2.3 with the curves labeled electrochemical promotion of a promoted catalyst . It is clear that positive potentials, i.e. supply of O2 to the catalyst surface, further enhances its performance. The light-off temperature is further decreased and the selectivity is further enhanced. Why This we will see in subsequent chapters when we examine the effect of catalyst potential UWR on the chemisorptive bond strength of various adsorbates, such as NO, N, CO and O. But the fact is that positive potentials (+1V) can further significantly enhance the performance of an already promoted catalyst. So one can electrochemically promote an already classically promoted catalyst. 

Y. Jiang, I.V. Yentekakis, and C.G. Vayenas, Potential-programmed reduction A new technique for investigating chemisorption on catalysts supported on solid electrolytes, J. Catal. 148, 240-251 (1994). 

This linear variation in catalytic activation energy with potential and work function is quite noteworthy and, as we will see in the next sections and in Chapters 5 and 6, is intimately linked to the corresponding linear variation of heats of chemisorption with potential and work function. More specifically we will see that the linear decrease in the activation energies of ethylene and methane oxidation is due to the concomitant linear decrease in the heat of chemisorption of oxygen with increasing catalyst potential and work function. 

As already noted the strength of chemisorptive bonds can be varied in situ via electrochemical promotion. This is the essence of the NEMCA effect. Following initial studies of oxygen chemisorption on Ag at atmospheric pressure, using isothermal titration, which showed that negative potentials causes up to a six-fold decrease in the rate of 02 desorption,11 temperature programmed desorption (TPD) was first used to investigate NEMCA.29... 

Increasing catalyst potential and work function leads to a pronounced increase in total oxygen coverage (which approaches unity even at elevated temperatures) and causes the appearance of new chemisorption states. At least two such states are created on Pt/YSZ (Fig. 4.43) A strongly bonded one which, as discussed in Chapter 5, acts as a sacrificial promoter during catalytic oxidations, and a weakly bonded one which is highly reactive and causes the observed dramatic increase in catalytic rate. 

In view of the potential-work function equivalence of solid state electrochemistry (Eq. 4.30 or 5.18) and of the fact that for non-activated adsorption, AEd>Pt=0=A AHo,pt, where AHo.pt is the enthalpy of chemisorption of O on Pt, these equations can also be written as ... 

Positive potentials lead to p values up to 20. (Figure 4.52). Negative currents also enhance the rate and selectivity but to a lesser extent (Fig. 8.64). Permanent NEMCA behaviour is also observed with positive currents at lower temperatures (Fig. 4.52). Overall, however, electrochemical promotion is not as pronounced as in the case where propene is used. This can be attributed to the much stronger electron donor character of C3H6 relative to CO which, as already noted in this chapter, behaves predominantly as an electron acceptor. Thus positive potentials weaken CO bonding to the surface while they enhance CjH6 chemisorption. 

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