Vibrational spectroscopy, surface structure

SANS Small-angle neutron scattering [175, 176] Thermal or cold neutrons are scattered elastically or inelastically Incident-Beam Spectroscopy Surface vibrational states, pore size distribution suspension structure... 

Vibrational spectroscopy has been, and will continue to be, one of the most important teclmiques in physical chemistry. In fact, the vibrational absorption of a single acetylene molecule on a Cu(lOO) surface was recently reported [ ]. Its endurance is due to the fact that it provides detailed infonnation on structure, dynamics and enviromnent. It is employed in a wide variety of circumstances, from routine analytical applications, to identifying novel (often transient) species, to providing some of the most important data for advancing the understanding of intramolecular and intemiolecular interactions. 

The major role of TOF-SARS and SARIS is as surface structure analysis teclmiques which are capable of probing the positions of all elements with an accuracy of <0.1 A. They are sensitive to short-range order, i.e. individual interatomic spacings that are <10 A. They provide a direct measure of the interatomic distances in the first and subsurface layers and a measure of surface periodicity in real space. One of its most important applications is the direct determination of hydrogen adsorption sites by recoiling spectrometry [12, 4T ]. Most other surface structure teclmiques do not detect hydrogen, with the possible exception of He atom scattering and vibrational spectroscopy. 

Strong correlation of the spectra of surface species with vibrational spectroscopy of molecules of known structure. 

The results presented here for silicas and aluminas illustrate that there is a wealth of structural information in the infrared spectra that has not previously been recognized. In particular, it was found that adsorbed water affects the lattice vibrations of silica, and that particle-particle Interactions affect the vibrations of surface species. In the case of alumina, it was found that aluminum oxides and hydroxides could be distinguished by their infrared spectra. The absence of spectral windows for photoacoustic spectroscopy allowed more complete band identification of adsorbed surface species, making distinctions between different structures easier. The ability to perform structural analyses by infrared spectroscopy clearly indicates the utility of photoacoustic spectroscopy. 

In addition to the indirect experimental evidence coming from work function measurements, information about water orientation at metal surfaces is beginning to emerge from recent applications of a number of in situ vibrational spectroscopic techniques. Infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy, surface-enhanced Raman scattering, and second harmonic generation have been used to investigate the structure of water at different metal surfaces, but the pictures emerging from all these studies are not always consistent, partially because of surface modification and chemical adsorption, which complicate the analysis. 

While the cross-bridge local adsorption site of acetylene on Cu(lll) and Ni(l 11) is essentially identical, on the structurally similar Pd(lll) surface the molecule adsorbs in a hollow site, as illustrated in Figure 1.7. This different adsorption site, first proposed on the basis of quantitative evaluation of NEXAFS spectra [86] and subsequently confirmed by PhD [87], provides a rationale for the significantly different behaviour seen in vibrational spectroscopy [78] for this system. 

Studies by Teplyakov et al. provided the experimental evidence for the formation of the Diels-Alder reaction product at the Si(100)-2 x 1 surface [239,240]. A combination of surface-sensitive techniques was applied to make the assignment, including surface infrared (vibrational) spectroscopy, thermal desorption studies, and synchrotron-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Vibrational spectroscopy in particular provides a molecular fingerprint and is useful in identifying bonding and structure in the adsorbed molecules. An analysis of the vibrational spectra of adsorbed butadiene on Si(100)-2 x 1 in which several isotopic forms of butadiene (i.e., some of the H atoms were substituted with D atoms) were compared showed that the majority of butadiene molecules formed the Diels-Alder reaction product at the surface. Very good agreement was also found between the experimental vibrational spectra obtained by Teplyakov et al. [239,240] and frequencies calculated for the Diels-Alder surface adduct by Konecny and Doren [237,238]. 

Teplyakov, A. V., Kong, M. J. and Bent, S. F. Diels-Alder reactions of butadienes with the Si(100)-2 x 1 surface as a dienophile vibrational spectroscopy, thermal-desorption and nearedge X-ray-absorption fine-structure studies. Journal of Chemical Physics 108, 4599 1606 (1998). 

Our article has concentrated on the relationships between vibrational spectra and the structures of hydrocarbon species adsorbed on metals. Some aspects of reactivities have also been covered, such as the thermal evolution of species on single-crystal surfaces under the UHV conditions necessary for VEELS, the most widely used technique. Wider aspects of reactivity include the important subject of catalytic activity. In catalytic studies, vibrational spectroscopy can also play an important role, but in smaller proportion than in the study of chemisorption. For this reason, it would not be appropriate for us to cover a large fraction of such work in this article. Furthermore, an excellent outline of this broader subject has recently been presented by Zaera (362). Instead, we present a summary account of the kinetic aspects of perhaps the most studied system, namely, the interreactions of ethene and related C2 species, and their hydrogenations, on platinum surfaces. We consider such reactions occurring on both single-crystal faces and metal oxide-supported finely divided catalysts. 

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