Heats of Chemisorption of O₂, H₂, CO, CO₂, and N₂on Polycrystalline and Single Crystal Transition Metal Surfaces

Abstract

Abstract One of the important physical-chemical properties that characterizes the interaction of solid surfaces with gases is the bond energy of the adsorbed species. The determination of the bond energy is usually performed indirectly by measuring the heat of adsorption (or heat of desorption) of the gas [1, 2], In order to define the heat of adsorption, let us consider the chemisorption of a diatomic molecule, X2, onto a site on a uniform solid surface, M. The molecule may adsorb without dissociation to form MX2. M represents the adsorption site where bonding occurs to a cluster of atoms or to a single atom. In this circumstance, the heat of adsorption, ΔHads, is defined as the energy needed to break the MX2 bond: