Kinetics of CO oxidation on high-concentration phases of atomic oxygen on Pt(111)
Authors: Gerrard Alex L. , Weaver Jason F. 
Published: December 2005

Temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy (TPRS) and direct, isothermal reaction-rate measurements were employed to investigate the oxidation of CO on Pt(111) covered with high concentrations of atomic oxygen. The TPRS results show that oxygen atoms chemisorbed on Pt(111) at coverages just above 0.25 ML (monolayers) are reactive toward coadsorbed CO, producing CO2 at about 295K. The uptake of CO on Pt(111) is found to decrease with increasing oxygen coverage beyond 0.25 ML and becomes immeasurable at a surface temperature of 100K when Pt(111) is partially covered with Pt oxide domains at oxygen coverages above 1.5 ML. The rate of CO oxidation measured as a function of CO beam exposure to the surface exhibits a nearly linear increase toward a maximum for initial oxygen coverages between 0.25 and 0.50 ML and constant surface temperatures between 300 and 500K. At a fixed CO incident flux, the time required to reach the maximum reaction rate increases as the initial oxygen coverage is increased to 0.50 ML. A time lag prior to the reaction-rate maximum is also observed when Pt oxide domains are present on the surface, but the reaction rate increases more slowly with CO exposure and much longer time lags are observed, indicating that the oxide phase is less reactive toward CO than are chemisorbed oxygen atoms on Pt(111). On the partially oxidized surface, the CO exposure needed to reach the rate maximum increases significantly with increases in both the initial oxygen coverage and the surface temperature. A kinetic model is developed that reproduces the qualitative dependence of the CO oxidation rate on the atomic oxygen coverage and the surface temperature. The model assumes that CO chemisorption and reaction occur only on regions of the surface covered by chemisorbed oxygen atoms and describes the CO chemisorption probability as a decreasing function of the atomic oxygen coverage in the chemisorbed phase. The model also takes into account the migration of oxygen atoms from oxide domains to domains with chemisorbed oxygen atoms. According to the model, the reaction rate initially increases with the CO exposure because the rate of CO chemisorption is enhanced as the coverage of chemisorbed oxygen atoms decreases during reaction. Longer rate delays are predicted for the partially oxidized surface because oxygen migration from the oxide phase maintains high oxygen coverages in the coexisting chemisorbed oxygen phase that hinder CO chemisorption. It is shown that the time evolution of the CO oxidation rate is determined by the relative rates of CO chemisorption and oxygen migration, Rad and Rm, respectively, with an increase in the relative rate of oxygen migration acting to inhibit the reaction. We find that the time lag in the reaction rate increases nearly exponentially with the initial oxygen coverage [O]itot when [O]itot exceeds a critical value, which is defined as the coverage above which Rad∕Rm is less than unity at fixed CO incident flux and surface temperature. These results demonstrate that the kinetics for CO oxidation on oxidized Pt(111) is governed by the sensitivity of CO binding and chemisorption on the atomic oxygen coverage and the distribution of surface oxygen phases.