Energy transfer dynamics of formate (HCOO a ) decomposition on aC u(110) surface has been studied by measuring the angle-resolved intensity and translational energy distributions of CO 2 emitted from the surface in asteady-state reaction of HCOOH and O 2 .The angular distribution of CO 2 shows as harp collimation with the direction perpendicular to the surface,a srepresented by cos n q (n = 6). The mean translational energy of CO 2 is measured to be as lowas100 meV and is independent of the surface temperature (T s ). These results clearly indicate that the decomposition of formate is athermal non-equilibrium process in which al arge amount of energy released by the decomposition reaction of formate is transformed into the internal energies of CO 2 molecules.T he thermal non-equilibrium features observed in the dynamics of formate decomposition support the proposed Eley-Rideal (ER)-type mechanism for formate synthesis on copper catalysts.Energy transfer and bond rupture/formation are two important events in ac hemical reaction. [1,2] Consequently,t he reaction mechanism must be examined with both aspects in mind. Forg as-phase bimolecular reactions,e nergy transfer processes have been extensively examined by applying crossed molecular beam techniques,w here detailed dynamical parameters (such as total momentum, energy,and angular momentum, before and after the collision events) can describe the partitioning of energy into each available mode of the products. [3,4] On the other hand, characterizing the energy-transfer processes in gas-surface chemical reactions is challenging because of the large number of degrees of freedom available to the surface atoms.T oa nalyze ag assurface chemical reaction, angle-resolved (AR) analysis of the desorbed products from the surface is one of the direct methods used because it relates to the transition state (TS) structure of the reaction. [5][6][7] In this communication, we report the angle-resolved intensity and translational energy distributions of the CO 2 produced from the decomposition of formate during the steady-state reaction of HCOOH with O 2 on Cu(110).Formate (HCOO a )i sa ni mportant intermediate in the synthesis of methanol, and is formed on copper surfaces during the initial elementary CO 2 hydrogenation step, namely:C O 2 + 1/2 H 2 !HCOO a . [8][9][10] Formate synthesis is unique in terms of reaction mechanism and dynamics,a s well as its structure-insensitive kinetics.W ehave proposed an ER-type mechanism for formate synthesis,b ased on experimental kinetic analysis and theoretical calculations, [11,12] in which CO 2 directly reacts with the adsorbed hydrogen atoms (H a )o nt he copper surface without the involvement of trapping states and adsorption precursors.T his,i nt urn, implies that the formate production rate can only be enhanced by controlling the energy of the CO 2 molecules in terms of at hermal non-equilibrium character.T he dynamics of formate decomposition on copper catalysts is thus interesting as the reverse reaction of formate synthesis: HCOO a ...