Anomalous Dependence of the Reactivity on the Presence of Steps: Dissociation of D2 on Cu(211)

Autor: Füchsel, Gernot, Cao, Kun, Er, Süleyman, Smeets, Egidius W. F., Kleyn, Aart W., Juurlink, Ludo B. F., Kroes, Geert-Jan
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2017
Předmět:
Zdroj: The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
ISSN: 1948-7185
Popis: Stepped metal surfaces are usually assumed to exhibit an increased catalytic activity for bond cleavage of small molecules over their flat single-crystal counterparts. We present experimental and theoretical data on the dissociative adsorption of molecular hydrogen on copper that contradicts this notion. We observe hydrogen molecules to be more reactive on the flat Cu(111) than on the stepped Cu(211) surface. We suggest that this exceptional behavior is due to a geometric effect, that is, that bond cleavage on the flat surface does not occur preferentially over a top site.
Databáze: OpenAIRE