Rainer D. Beck

Steric Effects in the Chemisorption of Vibrationally Excited Methane on Ni(100)

Tilting Toward Reaction Collisions between molecules and metal surfaces underlie many of the catalytic pathways that transform natural feedstocks into fuels and commodity chemical compounds. One such reaction, in which nickel strips hydrogen from methane, depends on whether the methyl C-H bonds are vibrating just before the molecule strikes the surface. Yoder et al. (p. 553) now delve deeper into this system. By aligning incoming molecular samples using polarized infrared light, they show that the hydrocarbon reacts most readily when it is vibrating parallel, rather than perpendicular, to the surface. The reaction underlying industrial hydrogen production depends subtly on the reagent’s orientation toward the catalyst. Newly available, powerful infrared laser sources enable the preparation of intense molecular beams of quantum-state prepared and aligned molecules for gas/surface reaction dynamics experiments. We present a stereodynamics study of the chemisorption of vibrationally excited methane on the (100) surface of nickel. Using linearly polarized infrared excitation of the C-H stretch modes of two methane isotopologues [CH4(ν3) and CD3H(ν1)], we aligned methane’s angular momentum and vibrational transition dipole moment in the laboratory frame. An increase in methane reactivity of as much as 60% is observed when the laser polarization is parallel rather than normal to the surface. The dependence of the alignment effect on the rotational branch used for excitation indicates that alignment of the vibrational transition dipole moment of methane is responsible for the steric effect. Potential explanations for the steric effect in terms of an alignment-dependent reaction barrier height or electronically nonadiabatic effects are discussed.

Surface reactivity of highly vibrationally excited molecules prepared by pulsed laser excitation: CH4 (2ν3) on Ni(100)

We report state resolved sticking coefficients for highly vibrationally excited CH4 on Ni(100) at well-defined kinetic energies in the range of 12-72 kJ/mol. Incident methane molecules are prepared by pulsed laser radiation in single rovibrational levels of the first overtone of the antisymmetric stretch (2nu(3)) at 6004.69 cm(-1) and collided at normal incidence with a clean Ni(100) single crystal. We find that the vibrational excitation enhances the reaction probability by a factor 100 at an incident translational energy of 72 kJ/mol, but this enhancement increases to more than 4 orders of magnitude at low kinetic energy. Despite this large increase in the sticking coefficient, vibrational energy in 2nu(3) appears to be about 80% as effective as an equivalent amount of translational energy in promoting the chemisorption reaction

Vibrationally Promoted Dissociation of Water on Ni(111)

Vibrating Water Apart The main route for producing hydrogen for industrial chemical synthesis is steam reforming, in which water and methane react at high temperatures on nickel catalysts to produce hydrogen and carbon dioxide. For both water and methane, the initial dissociation step can be promoted by the translational energy of a molecule as well as its internal vibrational energy, and fundamental studies of these reactions try to determine the relative contributions of these pathways. Although the methane reaction has been well studied, only recently have lasers been available to excite the higher stretching vibrations of water. Hundt et al. (p. 504) now report a joint experimental and theoretical study of D2O dissociation on the Ni(111) surface. For a given input of energy, vibrational energy was more effective for surmounting the reaction barrier than translational energy. The barrier to this reaction, a key step in methane steam reforming, is mainly surmounted by vibrational energy. Water dissociation on transition-metal catalysts is an important step in steam reforming and the water-gas shift reaction. To probe the effect of translational and vibrational activation on this important heterogeneous reaction, we performed state-resolved gas/surface reactivity measurements for the dissociative chemisorption of D2O on Ni(111), using molecular beam techniques. The reaction occurs via a direct pathway, because both the translational and vibrational energies promote the dissociation. The experimentally measured initial sticking probabilities were used to calibrate a first-principles potential energy surface based on density functional theory. Quantum dynamical calculations on the scaled potential energy surface reproduced the experimental results semiquantitatively. The larger increase of the dissociation probability by vibrational excitation than by translation per unit of energy is consistent with a late barrier along the O-D stretch reaction coordinate.

Fragmentation of C+60 and higher fullerenes by surface impact

Fragmentation of various fullerenes was studied by surface impact on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite at collision energies Ecol of 150–1050 eV/molecule. The projectiles C+60, C+70, C+76, C+84, and C+94 were formed by laser desorption of chromatographically separated samples, while large carbon clusters C+94, C+110, C+164 were produced by laser‐induced coalescence reactions. Except at the highest impact energies, the fragment distributions consist of even numbered C+n species with abundance maxima similar to those observed in fullerene synthesis. With increasing Ecol, we observe a size evolution in the fragment distributions characteristic of a sequential fragmentation process. Simulated fragment distributions based on statistical rate theory and a sequential C2 loss mechanism reproduce the experimental data well up to a maximum Ecol. They are used to determine the mean energy transfer during surface impact as a function of collision energy as well as its dependence on several experimental parameters su...

Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics Calculations versus Quantum-State- Resolved Experiments on CHD3 + Pt(111): New Insights into a Prototypical Gas−Surface Reaction

The dissociative chemisorption of methane on metal surfaces is of fundamental and practical interest, being a rate-limiting step in the steam reforming process. The reaction is best modeled with quantum dynamics calculations, but these are currently not guaranteed to produce accurate results because they rely on potential energy surfaces based on untested density functionals and on untested dynamical approximations. To help overcome these limitations, here we present for the first time statistically accurate reaction probabilities obtained with ab initio molecular dynamics (AIMD) for a polyatomic gas-phase molecule reacting with a metal surface. Using a general purpose density functional, the AIMD reaction probabilities are in semiquantitative agreement with new quantum-state-resolved experiments on CHD3 + Pt(111). The comparison suggests the use of the sudden approximation for treating the rotations even though CHD3 has large rotational constants and yields an estimated reaction barrier of 0.9 eV for CH4 + Pt(111).

Double-resonance overtone photofragment spectroscopy of trans-HONO. I. Spectroscopy and intramolecular dynamics

Using the technique of double-resonance overtone photofragment spectroscopy (DROPS), we have measured rotationally resolved vibrational overtone transitions to the previously unobserved 5v1, 6v1, and 7v1 levels of gas-phase trans-nitrous acid (HONO) in its electronic ground state. Observing the onset of dissociation from different rovibrational states of 5v1 near threshold determines the HO–NO bond energy to be D0=16 772±14 cm−1. Observed spectral splittings and broadening of individual rovibrational transitions provide quantitative data on the rate and extent of collision free vibrational energy redistribution that would result after coherent ultrashort pulse excitation. In parallel with these frequency domain measurements, we determine the unimolecular dissociation rates directly in time for trans-HONO molecules excited to several rotational states near threshold. The combination of time- and frequency-resolved data allows us to estimate the linewidth contributions from the finite dissociation lifetime ...

Enhanced coalescence upon laser desorption of fullerene oxides

C60Ox, x=1–3 were prepared by exposing C60 solutions to ozone. After high performance liquid chromatography purification, these materials were studied by laser desorption time of flight mass spectroscopy. These mass spectra suggest that fullerene oxides undergo laser desorption induced coalescence more efficiently than pure C60. A correlation between the fragmentation of the desorbed parent species and the observed coalescence products both in yield and distribution suggests that efficient gas phase coalescence involves at least one reactive species, such as C58, produced by fragmentation of the desorbed fullerenes or fullerene derivatives.

Alignment dependent chemisorption of vibrationally excited CH4(ν3) on Ni(100), Ni(110), and Ni(111).

We present a stereodynamics study of the dissociative chemisorption of vibrationally excited methane on the (100), (110), and (111) planes of a nickel single crystal surface. Using linearly polarized infrared excitation of the antisymmetric C-H stretch normal mode vibration (ν(3)), we aligned the angular momentum and C-H stretch amplitude of CH(4)(ν(3)) in the laboratory frame and measured the alignment dependence of state-resolved reactivity of CH(4) for the ν(3) = 1, J = 0-3 quantum states over a range of incident translational energies. For all three surfaces studied, in-plane alignment of the C-H stretch results in the highest dissociation probability and alignment along the surface normal in the lowest reactivity. The largest alignment contrast between the maximum and minimum reactivity is observed for Ni(110), which has its surface atoms arranged in close-packed rows separated by one layer deep troughs. For Ni(110), we also probed for alignment effects relative to the direction of the Ni rows. In-plane C-H stretch alignment perpendicular to the surface rows results in higher reactivity than parallel to the surface rows. The alignment effects on Ni(110) and Ni(100) are independent of incident translational energy between 10 and 50 kJ/mol. Quantum state-resolved reaction probabilities are reported for CH(4)(ν(3)) on Ni(110) for translational energies between 10 and 50 kJ/mol.

Neutralization and delayed ionization in fullerene surface collisions: Fragmentation and ionization rates as a route to activation energies

The interaction of C+60 and C+70 ion beams with a surface of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite was investigated by probing the ionization and fragmentation rates of scattered species within a time window of 20 μs following impact. Neutralization/reionization and fragmentation behavior was observed and followed by a pulsed deflection field applied to the surface at variable delays after the collision event. An almost complete collisional neutralization of the incident projectile was found. For an impact energy of 140–180 eV, a significant part of the scattered species was found to reionize by delayed electron emission within the experimental time window. The associated reionization and fragmentation kinetics were modeled with a system of differential equations assuming a simple unimolecular reaction diagram. Rate constants for delayed ionization and fragmentation were calculated as functions of internal energy and respective activation energies with the ‘‘finite heat bath’’ model (Klots) and the Rice–Rams...

Molecular-beam/surface-science apparatus for state-resolved chemisorption studies using pulsed-laser preparation

We describe a new apparatus that combines pulsed laser excitation in a molecular beam with surface-science methods for preparation of clean single-crystal surfaces and detection of adsorbates to enable state-selected studies of gas–surface reaction dynamics. Reactant molecules are prepared in specific vibrationally excited states via overtone pumping using tunable, narrow-band laser radiation. The collision-free environment of the molecular beam prevents relaxation of the prepared molecules before impact on the target surface and enables complete control over the collision energy and incidence angle. Chemisorption products are detected after a given deposition time by Auger electron spectroscopy. To achieve sufficient beam flux of state-selected reactant molecules for product detection by standard surface-science techniques, we use a high-intensity, short-pulse molecular-beam source matched to the low duty cycle of the pulsed lasers used in our experiments. We present the design and characterization of th...