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The mechanism of methanol formation and other reactions following formaldehyde adsorption on Ni(110)
Author(s) -
Dickinson J. Thomas,
Madix Robert J.
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
international journal of chemical kinetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.341
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1097-4601
pISSN - 0538-8066
DOI - 10.1002/kin.550100807
Subject(s) - chemistry , adsorption , formaldehyde , methanol , desorption , hydrogen , monolayer , reactivity (psychology) , molecule , decomposition , catalysis , activation energy , inorganic chemistry , photochemistry , organic chemistry , medicine , biochemistry , alternative medicine , pathology
The adsorption/desorption and reactive behavior of formaldehyde was studied on clean single‐crystal Ni(110) at adsorption temperatures down to 200 °K. For low exposures of the surface to formaldehyde, hydrogen and CO binding states were populated due to decomposition of the molecule upon adsorption. Higher exposures gave rise to a decomposition‐limited hydrogen peak exhibiting an activation energy of 20 kcal/gmol and an apparent frequency factor of 10 14 sec −1 . At initial coverages of H 2 CO exceeding about 0.5, monolayer methanol was observed to form. The formation of methanol involved a hydrogen atom transfer between two adsorbed H 2 CO molecules and did not occur totally via surface hydrogen. Self‐oxidation to form CO 2 was also observed. The surface exhibited reaction heterogeneity, and the surface reactivity was observed to depend on the temperature of adsorption of reactants, suggesting strong adsorbate‐induced surface “reconstruction.”