Effect of translational and vibrational energy on adsorption: The dynamics of molecular and dissociative chemisorption

Abstract

The dominant features of the molecule–surface potential energy surface which governs the dynamics of molecular and dissociative chemisorption are probed by molecular beam techniques coupled to electron spectroscopy. The collision energy and the vibrational energy of the incident adsorbate are the convenient probes of the interaction potential and high-resolution electron energy-loss spectroscopy is the sensitive and chemically specific detector of the result of the dissociative chemisorption event. The dissociative and molecular chemisorption of CH4 and CO on Ni (111) have been studied with these techniques. The results of these studies are summarized to illustrate the power of these techniques to provide information on the mechanism and dynamics of chemisorption.