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University of Cambridge

Adsorption and Reaction Microcalorimetry on Nickel and Platinum Single Crystal Surfaces

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The unique Cambridge single crystal adsorption microcalorimeter has been applied to a range of systems of catalytic interest to extract fundamental thermodynamic data. Coverage-dependent adsorption heats and sticking probabilities have been obtained with CO, NO, oxygen and ethylene adsorbates and Pt{110}, Ni{100}, Ni{110} and K/Ni{110} substrates. The initial adsorption heats for CO, NO, and O2 on Pt{110} are 183, 160 and 335 kJ mol-1 respectively. Catalytic heat of reaction data for CO + O2 on Pt{110}, the first obtained on a single crystal surface, suggest that "hot" adatoms are involved in producing thermally excited CO2 product molecules. The first measurement of the heat of adsorption of a hydrocarbon on a single crystal surface has been made for ethylene on Pt{110}. The initial value of 200 kJ mol-1, together with coverage dependent values, yield an average Pt–C binding energy of 231 kJ mol-1. A detailed comparison of new data for oxygen adsorption on Ni{100} and Ni{110} with existing data for Ni{111} is presented, with initial adsorption heats of 550, 475 and 440 kJ (mol O2) -1 respectively, while the corresponding sticking data suggest that the oxide film created is four atomic layers thick in each case. Novel temperature-dependent data have been successfully collected using a pyroelectric detector for oxygen on Ni{100} at 100, 300 and 410 K with a Monte Carlo simulation of the highest-temperature data yielding a strong second-nearest neighbour interaction energy of +30 ± 5 kJ mol-1. The adsorption of CO on K-predosed Ni{110} was found to differ markedly from previous data collected on Ni{100} for potassium coverages up to 0.35 ML, with the adsorption heat promoted by only ~ 30 kJ mol-1 compared to ~ 180 kJ mol-1 for the {100} surface, a difference ascribed to the missing row reconstruction of Ni{110}.

Degree

thesis:*
Name dc:type.qualificationname
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Level dc:type.qualificationlevel
Doctoral
Grantor dc:publisher.institution
University of Cambridge
Year dc:date.issued
1995

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Wartnaby, Charles

Rights

dc:rights
Language dc:language
en

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
DOI dc:identifier.doi
https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.22546
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/275355

Chain of custody

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Cambridge University
Base URL
api.repository.cam.ac.uk/server/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
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citation

Wartnaby, Charles. Adsorption and Reaction Microcalorimetry on Nickel and Platinum Single Crystal Surfaces. Doctoral thesis, University of Cambridge, 1995. https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.22546