Energy dissipation during desorption of reaction products: the role of substrate phonons

We discuss the processes of energy dissipation to substrate phonons that accompany desorption of neutral reaction products from catalyst surfaces. Employing the semiclassical trajectory approximation for description of the motion of desorbing particles on the product potential energy surface and assuming linear coupling to the phonon heatbath, we assess the mean number of excited phonons and the mean energy transfer for the paradigmatic Langmuir–Hinshelwood scenario of desorption of CO2 from Pt(1 1 1), Pd(1 1 1) and Rh(1 1 1) surfaces.