Derouin, Jonathan; Farber, Rachael G.; Turano, Marie E.; Iski, Erin V.; and Killelea, Daniel. Thermally Selective Formation of Subsurface Oxygen in Ag(111) Just Accepted "Just Accepted" manuscripts have been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication. They are posted online prior to technical editing, formatting for publication and author proofing. The American Chemical Society provides "Just Accepted" as a free service to the research community to expedite the dissemination of scientific material as soon as possible after acceptance. "Just Accepted" manuscripts appear in full in PDF format accompanied by an HTML abstract. "Just Accepted" manuscripts have been fully peer reviewed, but should not be considered the official version of record. They are accessible to all readers and citable by the Digital Object Identifier (DOI®). "Just Accepted" is an optional service offered to authors. Therefore, the "Just Accepted" Web site may not include all articles that will be published in the journal. After a manuscript is technically edited and formatted, it will be removed from the "Just Accepted" Web site and published as an ASAP article. Note that technical editing may introduce minor changes to the manuscript text and/or graphics which could affect content, and all legal disclaimers and ethical guidelines that apply to the journal pertain. ACS cannot be held responsible for errors or consequences arising from the use of information contained in these "Just Accepted" manuscripts. Thermally Selective Formation of Subsurface Oxygen inAg (111) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 2 AbstractA long-standing challenge in the study of heterogeneously catalyzed reactions on silver surfaces has been the determination of what oxygen species are of greatest chemical importance.This is due to the coexistence of several different surface phases on oxidized silver surfaces. A further complication is subsurface oxygen (O sub ). O sub are O atoms absorbed into the near surface of a metal, and are expected to alter the surface in terms of chemistry and structure, but these effects have yet to be well characterized. We studied oxidized Ag(111) surfaces after exposure to gas-phase O atoms to determine how O sub is formed and how its presence alters the resultant surface structure. Using a combination of surface science techniques to quantify O sub formation and the resultant surface structure, we observed that once 0.1 ML of O sub has formed, the surface dramatically, and uniformly, reconstructed to a striped phase at the expense of all other surface phases. Furthermore, O sub formation was hindered at temperatures above 500 K.The thermal dependence for O sub formation suggests that at industrial catalytic conditions of 475 -500 K for the epoxidation of ethylene-to-ethylene oxide, O sub would be present and is a factor in the subsequent reactivit...

Recent studies have shown the importance of oxide surfaces in heterogeneously catalyzed reactions. Because of the difficulties in reproducibly preparing oxidized metal surfaces, it is often unclear what species are thermodynamically stable and what factors effect the oxide formation process. In this work, we show that the thermodynamically stable phases on Rh(111) after exposure to atomic oxygen are the (2×1)-O adlayer and the trilayer surface oxide, RhO2. Formation of RhO2 was facilitated by surface defects and elevated concentrations of dissolved O atoms in the subsurface region. As the concentration of subsurface O atoms decreased, the coverage of RhO2 decreased so that only the (2×1)-O adlayer was present on the surface. The importance of subsurface oxygen species in RhO2 formation and stability indicates a complex relationship between surface structure and subsurface oxygen concentration.

The uptake and chemical speciation of oxygen in and on Ag(111) surface is described. An Ag(111) surface was exposed to gas-phase oxygen atoms under ultrahigh vacuum compatible conditions at various surface temperatures. The O uptake was quantified using temperature-programmed desorption measurements and showed that oxygen exposures at temperatures above 500 K yielded only surface-adsorbed oxygen in a single surface reconstruction. At temperatures below 500 K, O uptake continued past O surface saturation, and a maximum in the uptake with respect to exposure temperature was observed at 450 K. A model where O atoms must diffuse out of subsurface absorption sites to free room for further O describes this observation. The chemical speciation of the oxygenaceous species formed under these conditions was achieved using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. These data show that a single O species initially formed on the surface, but at higher coverages, a new, three-dimensional oxygenaceous phase developed. Because of the importance of silver in heterogeneously catalyzed partial oxidation reactions, these results show that oxygen species embedded below the surface plane must be incorporated into accurate models of Ag-surface catalyzed reactions.

Oxygen atoms on transition metal surfaces are highly mobile under the demanding pressures and temperatures typically employed for heterogeneously catalyzed oxidation reactions. This mobility allows for rapid surface diffusion of oxygen atoms, as well as absorption into the subsurface and reemergence to the surface, resulting in variable reactivity. Subsurface oxygen atoms play a unique role in the chemistry of oxidized metal catalysts, yet little is known about how subsurface oxygen is formed or returns to the surface. Furthermore, if oxygen diffusion between the surface and subsurface is mediated by defects, there will be localized changes in the surface chemistry due to the elevated oxygen concentration near the emergence sites. We observed that oxygen atoms emerge preferentially along the boundary between surface phases and that subsurface oxygen is depleted before the surface oxide decomposes.

Subsurface oxygen is known to form in transition metals, and is thought to be an important aspect of their ability to catalyze chemical reactions. The formation of subsurface oxygen is not, however, equivalent across all catalytically relevant metals. As a result, it is difficult to predict the stability and ease of the formation of subsurface oxygen in metals, as well as how the absorbed oxygen affects the chemical and physical properties of the metal. In comparing how a stepped platinum surface, Pt(5 5 3), responds to exposure to gas-phase oxygen atoms under ultra-high vacuum conditions to planar Rh(1 1 1), we are able to determine what role, if any, steps have on the capacity of a metal for subsurface oxygen formation. Despite the presence of regular defects, we found that only surface-bound oxygen formed on Pt(5 5 3). Alternatively, on the Rh(1 1 1) surface, oxygen readily absorbed into the selvedge of the metal. These results suggest that defects alone are insufficient for the formation of subsurface oxygen, and the ability of the metal to absorb oxygen is the primary factor in the formation and stabilization of subsurface oxygen.

In heterogeneously catalyzed oxidation reactions on metal surfaces, advantageous oxygenaceous species proffer lower barrier reaction pathways. In order to utilize such reactions better, it is essential to understand what species are present, how they are formed, and under what conditions they are available for reaction. Oxides, adsorbed oxygen, and subsurface oxygen each form on Rh(111) surfaces and thus provide the opportunity to distinguish the contributions of each species to the overall reactivity. In an effort to elucidate relevant reaction sites on catalytically active rhodium surfaces, a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) showed that when subsurface oxygen is present, CO was readily oxidized at the interface between the metallic and oxidic phases at relatively modest temperatures.

Surface structure and oxidation are key to silver-based heterogeneous catalysis. Prevention of surface reconstruction may favor electrophilic oxygen, which is believed to be the active species in silver-catalyzed oxidation. To determine whether terrace width or step geometry enables control of oxidation and concomitant reconstruction, we investigated oxidation of the topmost layer of a curved Ag(111) crystal. This crystal contains a range of terrace widths having either A- or B-type step geometries. Atomic oxygen was used to facilitate oxidation, temperature-programmed desorption quantified the extent of oxygen adsorption, and scanning tunneling microscopy characterized the formation of reconstructed areas. While A-type steps prove to have little influence, B-type steps hinder reconstruction. We attribute the difference to geometric-dependent growth mechanisms of silver oxide surface reconstructions.

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