Coadsorption of nitric oxide and oxygen on the Ag(110) surface

The coadsorption of NO and O2 on Ag(110) surface has been studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy ( XPS), ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) and in situ Raman spectroscopy. The existence of oxygen enhances the adsorption of NO by forming the NOx species, that is, NO2 and NO3, and the NO in turn as a promotor facilitates the cleavage of the dioxygen bond, forming the surface atomic oxygen species having the same spectral characteristics as those produced using oxygen at high pressure. The oxygen species generated by the interaction is composed of two parts. One is produced directly by the decomposition of surface NO–O2 complex at ca 625 K, which raised an O 1s feature at 530.5 eV and is absent at ca 800 K, while the another with an O 1s binding energy of 529.2 eV emerges at higher temperatures and shows similar properties as the reported c-state oxygen which bound tightly on restructured silver surface. The exposure to NO and O2 causes noticeable changes in the morphology of the Ag(110) surface and the flat terraces superseded by small (ca 0.1 mm) pits, and particles with typical diameters of a few micrometres were formed at elevated temperatures. © 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved