Surface studies of 2,4-pentanedione on γ-Al2O3/NiAl (1 0 0) and NiAl (1 0 0)

The chemical compound 2,4-pentanedione (Hacac) has been shown to etch the oxidized metal surfaces metals such as copper and nickel, but not their unoxidized surfaces. Here it is shown that on the γ-Al2O3/NiAl (1 0 0) surface (oxidized NiAl (1 0 0)) etching of aluminum occurs at 170 K and 750 K. Reflection–absorption infrared spectroscopy (RAIRS) is used to show that Hacac binds to both the clean, metallic and oxidized surfaces, but decomposition and combustion products dominate on the metallic surface and no etching occurs. The binding process that involves a deprotonation reaction of the enol species was identified by redshift in the carbonyl peaks and the appearance of an Al–H peak observed in the IR spectrum. The implication of these results is that there is both an unusual low temperature and high temperature etching of the alumina by bound acac.