Surface corrugation effects in dissociation dynamics

DIPC Seminars

Speaker

Ludo B.F. Juurlink, Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands

When

2013/04/17
14:00

Place

Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC).Paseo Manuel de Lardizabal, 4 (nearby the Facultad de Quimica), Donostia

Add to calendar

iCal

Subscribe to Newsletter

Surface corrugation effects in dissociation dynamics Ludo B.F. Juurlink Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Leiden, the Netherlands [l.juurlink@chem.leidenuniv.nl](mailto:l.juurlink@chem.leidenuniv.nl) In many industrial chemical processes, heterogeneous catalysis is used to convert gaseous reactants into useful products. Many of these chemical processes are kinetically hindered by activation barriers in the dissociation of one of the gas phase reactants. We study this dissociation process for small molecules impacting on well-defined metal surfaces, which are used in industry as catalytic materials. We try to understand how dissociation is affected by atomic corrugation of the metallic surface. Also, when multiple reaction pathways are present, we try to unravel these and quantify the dependence of these reaction pathways on aspects e.g. impact energy and angle of impact. This information feeds kinetic models for industrial catalysis. In this seminar, I will highlight recent studies that probed H2 and O2 dissociation on a variety of Ni an Pt surfaces. We have recently incorporated the use of curved surfaces in such studies and I will show how such crystals can be used in fundamental studies of gas-surface reaction dynamics.