AI Article Synopsis
- The study investigates how nitric oxide (NO) interacts with a specific copper surface (Cu(100)) using advanced techniques like scanning tunneling microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy.
- At low temperatures (64 K), NO mainly sticks to the surface as single molecules, but starts to react and break apart at around 70 K to form oxygen atoms.
- The process involves the formation of a dimer (NO)2, which changes into a flat structure before breaking down into N2O and oxygen, revealing that this mechanism is crucial for the high reactivity of NO on the Cu(100) surface.
Article Abstract
The reaction of nitric oxide (NO) on Cu(100) is studied by scanning tunneling microscopy, electron energy loss spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. The NO molecules adsorb mainly as monomers at 64 K, and react and dissociate to yield oxygen atoms on the surface at ∼70 K. The temperature required for the dissociation is significantly low for Cu(100), compared to those for Cu(111) and Cu(110). The minimum energy pathway of the reaction is via (NO)2 formation, which converts into a flat-lying ONNO and then dissociates into N2O and O with a considerably low activation energy. We propose that the formation of (NO)2 and flat-lying ONNO is the key to the exceptionally high reactivity of NO on Cu(100).
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/d1cp02746h | DOI Listing |
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