The interaction of 0, with a Cu(lll)-Ni alloy and the reaction of sorbed oxygen with H, has been investigated with ellipsometry and AES. The surface alloys were prepared by dissociation of nickel carbonyl on a clean Cu(ll1) surface. Sorption of 0, can be described by a precursor state model for dissociative chemisorption followed by a first order reaction of adsorbed oxygen atoms to incorporated oxygen atoms. The initial sticking probability is 10-a at room temperature and increases with increasing crystal temperature.The first chemisorption of 0, on a freshly prepared alloy surface causes an irreversible surface reconstruction.The amount of oxygen in the near surface layer decreases with increasing crystal temperature.The reaction of sorbed oxygen with H, can be described by a nucleation and growth mechanism with a time dependent number of growth centers. The rate is strongly affected by an operating ionisation gauge.