The interactions of a model synthetic liquid fuel reactant (furan) with a model
hydrodeoxygenation catalyst (clean and sulfided single crystal molybdenum)
were investigated using the following UHV tools: Auger electron spectroscopy
(AES), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), and temperature programed
reaction spectroscopy (TPRS). In addition to furan, the reactions of hydrogen,
carbon monoxide, ethylene, and propene on clean and sulfided Mo(110) were
also examined. All adsorbates exposed to the extremely reactive clean or
sulfided Mo(110) surface decomposed, yielding gaseous H₂ and surface C. In
addition, furan TPRS caused the production of gaseous CO. The presence of
background hydrogen caused no major changes in the TPRS of furan or the
other adsorbates. Sulfur pre-adsorption caused the chemical shifting of H₂ TPRS
peaks. Both sulfur and carbon pre-adsorption resulted in the Van der Waal's
radius blocking of adsorption sites for all adsorbates studied