“…The oxygen species involved in these reactions could be atomic or molecular; in principle, we do not have direct evidence of their nature. However, the spectroscopic features of CO−O 2 interactions, as for the CO stretching region frequencies, are very similar to those reported by Hollins and Pritchard on oxidized Cu(110), and much experimental evidence, coming from different surface science techniques, indicates that on the Cu(110) surface, oxygen chemisorption is dissociative also at T < 300 K. Therefore, also in our case, atomic oxygen, adsorbed on copper particles, can be presumed. Moreover, it was found, on Cu(110), by HREELS, LEED, and TPD 40 that the exposure to oxygen at 100 K produces a very reactive oxygen species that oxidizes CO to CO 2 , desorbing below 200 K; moreover, on the same surface, a (2 × 1) phase was also detected that can oxidize CO only at temperatures higher than 430 K. The more reactive oxygen species, O - like, was associated with isolated oxygen atoms; the less reactive one, O 2- like, was associated with reconstructed Cu−O−Cu planes.…”