Abstract

The adsorption of molecular nitrogen and carbon monoxide on potassium promoted Ru(001) has been investigated with vibrational spectroscopy, thermal desorption, LEED and work function measurements. For carbon monoxide, small precoverages of potassium result in anomalously weak C-O bonds which manifest themselves in large C-O stretch frequency shifts (600 to 1400 cm^-1) and an increase in vibrational overtone anharmonicities[1]. Facile C-O bondbreaking was observed by isotopic scrambling in thermal desorption experiments. Both vibrational and thermokinetic data as well as analogies to metalcarbonyls[2] and molecularly adsorbed oxygen on Pt(111) [3] suggest a side-on bonding mode of the molecule with substantial weakening and lengthening of the C-O bond.

© 1985 Optical Society of America