Infrared study of triruthenium dodecacarbonyl interactions with gold

We present here a study of the interaction of triruthenium dodecacarbonyl Ru3(CO)12 with gold surfaces using time-evolved and temperature-programmed infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) and STM. Ru3(CO)12 exhibits drastically different adsorption/desorption behavior on high-index surfaces of gold in comparison to the smooth Au(111) surface. On the smooth Au(111) surface, the adsorption of Ru3(CO)12 at 200 K is observed to be molecular and reversible with the moleculeʹs Ru3-plane oriented essentially perpendicular to the surface in the first and second layer. In the multilayer (> 3 ML), the molecule is oriented parallel (or moderately inclined) to the surface. On high-index gold surfaces, prepared by partial annealing of rough gold films, the molecules dissociate. Vibrational spectra reveal dissociation of carbonyl to Ru and CO at elevated temperature (> 250 K) with the formation of CO covered Ru-islands and the subsequent desorption of CO from Ru-islands. Increasing amounts of CO observed with increasing surface roughness demonstrate that the rate of Ru3(CO)12 dissociation is related directly to the surface roughness of the gold surface. STM images reveal at low coverage the formation of 2-D islands of carbonyl fragments with lateral sizes of 1 to 1.5 nm and at higher coverage the formation of larger 3-D islands of 1 to 3 layers and lateral sizes above 10 nm.