Infrared spectroscopy of oxygen adsorbed on hydrogen covered Pt(111)

Abstract

Using infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy we have investigated how preadsorbed hydrogen affects the adsorption of O(2) on the Pt(111) surface at temperatures below the onset of the water formation reaction. On the fully hydrogen covered surface, Theta(H)=1, O(2) physisorbs at temperatures below 45 K, the weakly dipole active internal stretch vibration is observed at 1548 cm(-1). Unlike on the clean Pt(111) surface, this adsorption state does not act as a precursor for O(2) chemisorption. The physisorbed molecules simply desorb above 45 K and no chemisorbed O(2) state is populated directly from the gas phase in the temperature range 45-90 K. When the surface is approximately half covered, Theta(H) approximately 0.4, with preadsorbed hydrogen, O(2) chemisorbs on the clean Pt(111) surface regions in the characteristic peroxolike and superoxolike states with vibration frequencies around 700 cm(-1) and 870 cm(-1). These values correspond to dense O(2) islands which develop already at low O(2) coverages. At this hydrogen coverage, we find that the initial sticking probability of chemisorbed O(2) is drastically reduced at 90 K and the general uptake also proceeds slowly when compared with observations for the clean surface. We suggest that this is due to a change in the behavior of the physisorbed O(2) precursor.