Formation of Environmentally Persistent Free Radicals (EPFRs) on the Phenol-Dosed -FeO(0001) Surface.

Environmentally persistent free radicals (EPFRs) are a class of toxic air pollutants that are found to form by the chemisorption of substituted aromatic molecules on the surface of metal oxides. In this study, we employ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) to perform a temperature-dependent study of phenol adsorption on -FeO(0001) to probe the radical formation mechanism by monitoring changes in the electronic structure of both the adsorbed phenol and metal oxide substrate. Upon dosing at room temperature, new phenol-derived electronic states have been clearly observed in the UPS spectrum at saturation coverage.