Terrace mobility

Mobility of this second kind is illustrated in Fig. XVIII-14, which shows NO molecules diffusing around on terraces with intervals of being trapped at steps. Surface diffusion can be seen in field emission microscopy (FEM) and can be measured by observing the growth rate of patches or fluctuations in emission from a small area [136,138] (see Section V111-2C), field ion microscopy [138], Auger and work function measurements, and laser-induced desorption... 

Figure Bl.19.13. (a) Tliree STM images of a Pt(l 11) surface covered witli hydrocarbon species generated by exposure to propene. Images taken in constant-height mode. (A) after adsorption at room temperature. The propylidyne (=C-CH2-CH2) species that fomied was too mobile on the surface to be visible. The surface looks similar to that of the clean surface. Terraces ( 10 mn wide) and monatomic steps are the only visible features. (B) After heating the adsorbed propylidyne to 550 K, clusters fonn by polymerization of the C H...

Iodine and bromine adsorb onto Au(l 11) from sodium iodide or sodium bromide solutions under an applied surface potential with the surface structure formed being dependent on the applied potential [166]. The iodine adsorbate can also affect gold step edge mobility and diffusion of the Au surface. Upon deposition of a layer of disordered surface iodine atoms, the movement of gold atoms (assisted by the 2-dimensional iodine gas on the terrace) from step edges out onto terraces occurs. However, this diffusion occurs only at the step edge when an ordered adlayer is formed [167]. 

In order to assess the role of the platinum surface structure and of CO surface mobility on the oxidation kinetics of adsorbed CO, we carried out chronoamperometry experiments on a series of stepped platinum electrodes of [n(l 11) x (110)] orientation [Lebedeva et al., 2002c]. If the (110) steps act as active sites for CO oxidation because they adsorb OH at a lower potential than the (111) terrace sites, one would expect that for sufficiently wide terraces and sufficiently slow CO diffusion, the chronoamperometric transient would display a CottreU-hke tailing for longer times owing to slow diffusion of CO from the terrace to the active step site. The mathematical treatment supporting this conclusion was given in Koper et al. [2002]. 

It was established that an equilibrium is maintained between CO adsorbed on steps and on terraces [81], a fact that is in agreement with the high mobility ascribed to chemisorbed CO on Pt. 

The existence of active sites on surfaces has long been postulated, but confidence in the geometric models of kink and step sites has only been attained in recent years by work on high index surfaces. However, even a lattice structure that is unreconstructed will show a number of random defects, such as vacancies and isolated adatoms, purely as a result of statistical considerations. What has been revealed by the modern techniques described in chapter 2 is the extraordinary mobility of surfaces, particularly at the liquid-solid interface. If the metal atoms can be stabilised by coordination, very remarkable atom mobilities across the terraces are found, with reconstruction on Au(100), for example, taking only minutes to complete at room temperature in chloride-containing electrolytes. It is now clear that the... 

The characteristics of monatomic height step formation ofCu under-potential deposition on Ag(l 11) in sulfuric acid solution were observed to be dependent on electrode potentials/ At more positive underpotential deposition potential regions, STM revealed the frizzy edges of Cu underpotential deposition at the comers of Cu islands growing on the Ag( 111) terrace STM. The kink site mobility was roughly estimated as 3000 nm s . Monatomic height steps on Au(l 11) electrodes did not show any sign of frizziness under the experimental condition. ... 

Reduction of thin CU2O layers reproduces smooth terraces of the Cu surface, however, with multi-atomic steps in between. This result is further proof for the high surface mobility of Cu atoms on pure Cu(lll) terraces. Reduction of the thicker duplex film yields a rougher metal surface. During the rearrangement of several atomic layers smooth large terraces cannot be achieved. 

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