CO and O2 adsorption on α-Mo2C (0001)

CO and O2 chemisorption on Mo- and C-terminated faces of α-Mo2C (0001) was investigated. CO adsorbs molecularly, and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) studies indicate one CO chemisorption state with an apparent first-order activation energy for desorption of 93 kJ mol−1 at saturation coverage. O2 adsorbs dissociatively, resulting in a (1×1) rectangular overlayer on the Mo-terminated surface. CO is the only thermal desorption product detected from an oxygen-saturated surface, yielding a low temperature desorption-limited feature and a high temperature reaction-limited feature. However, the majority (∼85%) of the surface oxygen does not burn off as CO, but instead diffuses into the sample bulk. For the C-terminated surface, the CO and O2 saturation coverages are not significantly altered. Relative surface coverages based on the total number of surface Mo atoms are 14% for CO and 50% for oxygen atoms.