(768c) Structure Sensitivity of Oxygen Adsorption On Surface Structure Spread Single Crystals

The role of atomic surface structure in catalytic reactions requires a fundamental understanding to develop new catalysts. Surface Structure Spread Single Crystals (S⁴Cs) expose a continuous distribution of crystal planes across their surfaces. Each point on the S⁴Cs has a different local crystallographic orientation that can be determined from the shape of the S⁴Cs and the orientation of its bulk crystal lattice vectors. When coupled with spatially resolved surface analysis techniques, S⁴Cs can be used to study the effects of surface structure on surface chemistry across a broad, continuous distribution of crystal planes. In this work, the dissociative adsorption of O₂ on Cu was studied using a Cu(111)±10° S⁴C. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) was used to analyze the surface structure and calculate the local step density at various points on the Cu(111)±10° S⁴C. Spatially resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) was performed to study the adsorption of O on ~80 different crystal planes of the Cu(111)±10° S⁴C. It was found that the O coverage adsorbed on the surface increased with increasing step density but was independent of the type of step.