Decomposition of methanol on Au(310)

Abstract

Experimental results on the interaction of methanol with a Au(310) surface studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and temperature programmed desorption (TPD) are reported. At 80 K methanol forms a physisorbed condensed layer above 5 L of exposure. Interestingly, O-H bond scission takes place above 150 K on the surface resulting in an adsorbed methoxy species which is stable till 500 K. This is in contrast with other gold surfaces like Au(111) and Au(110) which showed no evidence for decomposition. The difference in reactivity of Au(310) surface towards methanol is interpreted in terms of the presence of special sites formed by (110) steps and (100) terraces on this surface.

Two Gold Surfaces and a Cluster with Remarkable Reactivity for CO Oxidation, a Density Functional Theory Study

“…As some papers report that unsupported clusters may interact strongly with O 2 and even catalyze CO oxidation [26][27][28][29], we also include calculations on a gold cluster. We confirm that O 2 does not dissociate on a flat surface or even the stepped, relatively reactive (310) surface of gold that we used in previous work [30][31][32]. However, we find that extended gold surfaces consisting of diatomic rows of Au-atoms on a Au(100) surface are able to dissociate O 2 and allow CO oxidation, while a Au 38 cluster terminated by a similar double dimer facet as the diatomic row structure shows even more favorable energetics for the CO oxidation from CO and O 2 .…”

Lifting of the Au(1 0 0) surface reconstruction by NO chemisorption

“…Therefore, the reaction energy on Au(1 0 0) is likely to significantly exceed the heat of adsorption of NO on this surface. This is not necessarily the case on certain vicinal surfaces of Au (1 0 0 [29]. This remarkable activity could be due to a reduction of the endothermicity of the NO dissociation step.…”

Adsorption and Decomposition of Methanol on Gold Nanoclusters Supported on a Thin Film of Al2O3/NiAl(100)

“…The maximum shift is, however, only 0.4-0.5 eV, significantly smaller than the shifts observed for continuous dehydrogenation to CO (up to about 2 eV) on Pd(111) 11 and Au(310). 12 We therefore propose that the observed shift is due primarily to that much more methanol have been transferred to CH 3 O. Other intermediate species might coexist, but their proportions must be minor.…”

“…Peak A broadened in the temperature range 150-250 K, indicating a mixed phase of various species. The broadening of peak A is obviously smaller than the peak broadening due to the coexistence of three (or more) species formed during continuous dehydrogenation of methanol on Au-(310), 12 which implies fewer coexisting species. Further annealing above 250 K results in atypical positive BE shifts of peak A before it vanishes near 350 K (see Figure 7b).…”