ABSTRACTAs demonstrated by recent STM [1] and LEED [2] experiments the platinum (110) surface undergoes, at carbon monoxide submonolayer coverages, a phase transition from the 1 x 2 “missing-row” (reconstructed) state to the 1 x 1(bulk-like) state under specific temperature and partial-pressure conditions. The catalytic oxidation reaction CO + 1/2 → CO2 drives a microfaceting instability [3] [4] of the Pt(110) surface which ends up in a regular sawtooth profile with a period ≈ 200 Å, along the [110] direction.We introduce the idea that the rather extensive Pt mass transport, as involved in the process, could be energetically assisted by the reaction itself. Energy and momentum-balance considerations lead us to expect an energy ≲ 0.5 eV to be transferrable to thesubstrate. This should efficiently contribute to initiating the “scraping”process that leads to the microfaceted pattern.A simple model for nucleation and growth of facets is presented (see ref. 5), yielding characteristic times of order minutes (at T = 500 K), in fair agreement with experiment.Independently of the structural/catalytic problem, adsorption of CO at submonolayer coverages on, e.g., Pt(110) might be of interest from a surfactantphysics point of view (see ref. 6 for a very recent study on layer-by-layer homoepitaxial metal growth).
Performance of a Metal-Organic Framework MIL-53(Al)-Supported Cobalt Catalyst in the CO Catalytic Oxidation Reaction
