An influence of pretreatment conditions on surface structure and reactivity of Pt(100) towards CO oxidation reaction

We present a combined electrochemical and in situ STM study of the surface structure of Pt(100) single crystal electrodes in dependence on the cooling atmosphere after flame annealing. The following cooling conditions were applied: Ar/H2 and Ar/CO mixtures (reductive atmosphere), argon (inert gas) and air (oxidative atmosphere). Surface characterization by in-situ STM allows deriving direct correlations between surface structure and macroscopic electrochemical behavior of the respective platinum electrodes. We investigated the influence of defect type and density as well as long range surface order on the kinetics of the CO electro-oxidation reaction. The defect-rich Pt(100) electrodes as cooled in air or Ar, and followed by immersion in the hydrogen adsorption region display higher activities as compared to the rather smooth Pt(100)-(1 × 1) electrode cooled in an Ar/H2-atmospher

Charge Transport in Single Au|Alkanedithiol|Au Junctions: Coordination Geometries and Conformational Degrees of Freedom

Recent STM molecular break-junction experiments have revealed multiple series of peaks in the conductance histograms of alkanedithiols. To resolve a current controversy, we present here an in-depth study of charge transport properties of Au|alkanedithiol|Au junctions. Conductance histograms extracted from our STM measurements unambiguously confirm features showing more than one set of junction configurations. Based on quantum chemistry calculations, we propose that certain combinations of different sulfur-gold couplings and trans/gauche conformations act as the driving agents. The present study may have implications for experimental methodology: whenever conductances of different junction conformations are not statistically independent, the conductance histogram technique can exhibit a single series only, even though a much larger abundance of microscopic realizations exists.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; published versio

Cl electrosorption on Ag(100): Lateral interactions and electrosorption valency from comparison of Monte Carlo simulations with chronocoulometry experiments

We present Monte Carlo Simulations using an equilibrium lattice-gas model for the electrosorption of Cl on Ag(100) single-crystal surfaces. Fitting the simulated isotherms to chronocoulometry experiments, we extract parameters such as the electrosorption valency gamma and the next-nearest-neighbor lateral interaction energy phi_nnn. Both coverage-dependent and coverage independent gamma were previously studied assuming a constant phi_nnn [I. Abou Hamad, Th. Wandlowski, G. Brown, P.A. Rikvold, J. Electroanal. Chem. 554-555 (2003) 211]. Here, a self-consistent, entirely electrostatic picture of the lateral interactions with a coverage-dependent phi_nnn is developed, and a relationship between phi_nnn and gamma is investigated for Cl on Ag(100).Comment: Accepted for publication in Electrochimica Acta, 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables and an appendi

Structure transitions between copper-sulphate and copper-chloride UPD phases on Au(111)

Structure transitions between copper UPD adlayers on Au(111)-(1 × 1) in sulfuric acid and chloride containing electrolyte were investigated by in situ scanning tunnelling microscopy. We demonstrate that co-adsorbed sulphate ions in the (√3 × √3)R30° UPD adlayer are replaced by chloride ions and, depending on the halide coverage, a commensurate (2 × 2) or a slightly distorted (5 × 5)-like Cu-Cl UPD adlayer are formed. The stability ranges of these phases are controlled both by the electrode potential and the Cl− concentration. Phase transitions between the three UPD phases were monitored by time-resolved in situ STM. The observed structure details were attributed to mechanisms based on two-dimensional nucleation and growth processe

Magic ratios for connectivity-driven electrical conductance of graphene-like molecules

Experiments using a mechanically-controlled break junction and calculations based on density functional theory demonstrate a new magic ratio rule (MRR),which captures the contribution of connectivity to the electrical conductance of graphene-like aromatic molecules. When one electrode is connected to a site i and the other is connected to a site i' of a particular molecule, we assign the molecule a magic integer Mii'. Two molecules with the same aromatic core, but different pairs of electrode connection sites (i,i' and j,j' respectively) possess different magic integers Mii' and Mjj'. Based on connectivity alone, we predict that when the coupling to electrodes is weak and the Fermi energy of the electrodes lies close to the centre of the HOMO-LUMO gap, the ratio of their conductances is equal to (Mii' /Mjj')2. The MRR is exact for a tight binding representation of a molecule and a qualitative guide for real molecules

Electrosorption of Br and Cl on Ag(100): Experiments and Computer Simulations

We present chronocoulometry experiments and equilibrium Monte Carlo simulations for the electrosorption of Br and Cl on Ag(100) single-crystal electrode surfaces. Two different methods are used to calculate the long-range part of the adsorbate-adsorbate interactions. The first method is a truncated-sum approach, while the second is a mean-field-enhanced truncated-sum approach. To compare the two methods, the resulting isotherms are fit to experimental adsorption isotherms, assuming both a constant electrosorption valency &gamma and also a coverage-dependent &gamma. While a constant &gamma fits the Br/Ag(100) well, a coverage-dependent or potential-dependent &gamma is needed for Cl/Ag(100)

Ab-initio study of the thermopower of biphenyl-based single-molecule junctions

Employing ab-initio electronic structure calculations combined with the non-equilibrium Green's function technique, we study the dependence of the thermopower Q on the conformation in biphenyl-based single-molecule junctions. For the series of experimentally available biphenyl molecules, alkyl side chains allow us to gradually adjust the torsion angle \phi\ between the two phenyl rings from 0 to 90{\deg} and to control in this way the degree of \pi-electron conjugation. Studying different anchoring groups and binding positions, our theory predicts that the absolute values of the thermopower decrease slightly towards larger torsion angles, following an a+b*cos^{2}\phi\ dependence. The anchoring group determines the sign of Q and a,b, simultaneously. Sulfur and amine groups give rise to Q,a,b>0, while for cyano Q,a,b<0. The different binding positions can lead to substantial variations of the thermopower mostly due to changes in the alignment of the frontier molecular orbital levels and the Fermi energy. We explain our ab-initio results in terms of a \pi-orbital tight-binding model and a minimal two-level model, which describes the pair of hybridizing frontier orbital states on the two phenyl rings. The variations of the thermopower with \phi\ seem to be within experimental resolution.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figues, 3 table

Halide electroadsorption on single crystal surfaces

The structure and phase behavior of halides have been investigated on single crystals of Ag and Au using synchrotron x-ray scattering techniques. The adlayer coverages are potential dependent. For all halides studied the authors found that with increasing potential, at a critical potential, a disordered adlayer transforms into an ordered structure. Often these ordered phases are incommensurate and exhibit potential-dependent lateral separations (electrocompression). The authors have analyzed the electrocompression in terms of a model which includes lateral interactions and partial charge. A continuous compression is not observed for Br on Ag(100). Rather, they find that the adsorption is site-specific (lattice gas) in both the ordered and disordered phases. The coverage increases with increasing potential and at a critical potential the disordered phase transforms to a well-ordered commensurate structure

An Off-lattice Model for Br Electrodeposition on Au(100): from DFT to Experiment

Since Br adsorption on Au(100) displays an incommensurate ordered phase, a lattice-gas treatment of the adlayer configurations is not reliable. We therefore use density functional theory slab calculations to determine the parameters necessary for the construction of an off-lattice model. We compute and analyze the total energy and electron density as the lateral Br position and coverage are varied. This allows the calculation of the corrugation potential, the short-range lateral interactions, the dipole moment (long-range interactions), and the residence charge. From these parameters, we construct an off-lattice model with no freely adjustable parameters. The simulation results compare remarkably well with experimental results.Comment: 42 pages, 15 embedded figures, submitted to Surface Scienc