Characteristics of the adsorption of indium and thallium atoms on tungsten oxide

Abstract

The subject of the adsorption of atoms on surfaces is of considerable theoretical and technical importance. A knowledge of the processes involved is essential, for example, before we can understand many industrial applications which depend for their success upon the catalytic activity of metallic oxides. It is of great advantage in making experiments in this field if the adsorbed atoms or molecules can be detected by electrical methods, and TAYLOR and LANGMUIR have shown recently that these methods allow us to make an extremely accurate and detailed study of the adsorption of caesium atoms on a tungsten surface. The object of the experiments described in this paper was to examine the extent to which the adsorption of atoms on the surface of a metallic oxide can be described in terms similar to those developed by TAYLOR and LANGMUIR in their work with metallic tungsten. There is a marked contrast between the behaviour of metal atoms adsorbed (a) on the surface of a metal, and (b) on the surface of a dielectric like glass, and this difference is to be associated with the difference in the electrical properties of the two types of materials.