Adsorption and interaction of ethylene on RuO2(110) surfaces.

Ethylene (C2H4) adsorbed on the stoichiometric and oxygen-rich RuO2(110) surfaces, exposing coordinatively unsaturated Ru-cus and O-cus atoms, is investigated by applying high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy and thermal desorption spectroscopy in combination with isotope labeling experiments. On the stoichiometric RuO2(110) surface C2H4 adsorbs and desorbs molecularly. In contrast, on the oxygen-rich RuO2(110) surface ethylene adsorbs molecularly at 85 K and is completely oxidized through interaction with O-cus and O-bridge upon annealing to 500 K.

Absolute values of surface and step free energies from equilibrium crystal shapes.

It is shown that exact images of the three-dimensional equilibrium shape of crystallites (ECS), recorded at several temperatures between 0.3 and 0.8 of the melting temperature of a solid, can be evaluated to yield absolute values of the surface and step free energies versus temperature, in addition to the formation energy of kinks.