Inelastic scattering of H and D atoms from the (111) surfaces of six fcc transition metals (Au, Pt, Ag, Pd, Cu, and Ni) was investigated, and in each case, excitation of electron-hole pairs dominates the inelasticity. The results are very similar for all six metals. Differences in the average kinetic energy losses between metals can mainly be attributed to different efficiencies in the coupling to phonons due to the different masses of the metal atoms. The experimental observations can be reproduced by molecular dynamics simulations based on full-dimensional potential energy surfaces and including electronic excitations by using electronic friction in the local density friction approximation. The determining factors for the energy loss are the electron density at the surface, which is similar for all six metals, and the mass ratio between the impinging atoms and the surface atoms. Details of the electronic structure of the metal do not play a significant role. The experimentally validated simulations are used to explore sticking over a wide range of incidence conditions. We find that the sticking probability increases for H and D collisions near normal incidence-consistent with a previously reported penetration-resurfacing mechanism. The sticking probability for H or D on any of these metals may be represented as a simple function of the incidence energy, E, metal atom mass, M, and incidence angle, 𝜗. S=(S+a⋅E+b⋅M)*(1-h(𝜗-c)(1-cos(𝜗-c))), where h is the Heaviside step function and for H, S = 1.081, a = -0.125 eV, b=-8.40⋅10 u, c = 28.88°, d = 1.166 eV, and e = 0.442 eV; whereas for D, S = 1.120, a = -0.124 eV, b=-1.20⋅10 u, c = 28.62°, d = 1.196 eV, and e = 0.474 eV.

Recently, direct kinetic experiments have shown that the oxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide by reaction with stabilized Criegee intermediates (CIs) is an important source of sulfuric acid in the atmosphere. So far, only small CIs, generated in photolysis experiments, have been directly detected. Herein, it is shown that large, stabilized CIs can be detected in the gas phase by FTIR spectroscopy during the ozonolysis of β-pinene. Their transient absorption bands between 930 and 830 cm(-1) appear only in the initial phase of the ozonolysis reaction when the scavenging of stabilized CIs by the reaction products is slow. The large CIs react with sulfur dioxide to give sulfur trioxide and nopinone with a yield exceeding 80%. Reactant consumption and product formation in time-resolved β-pinene ozonolysis experiments in the presence of sulfur dioxide have been kinetically modeled. The results suggest a fast reaction of sulfur dioxide with CIs arising from β-pinene ozonolysis.

There is wide interest in developing accurate theories for predicting rates of chemical reactions that occur at metal surfaces, especially for applications in industrial catalysis. Conventional methods contain many approximations that lack experimental validation. In practice, there are few reactions where sufficiently accurate experimental data exist to even allow meaningful comparisons to theory. Here, we present experimentally derived thermal rate constants for hydrogen atom recombination on platinum single-crystal surfaces, which are accurate enough to test established theoretical approximations. A quantum rate model is also presented, making possible a direct evaluation of the accuracy of commonly used approximations to adsorbate entropy. We find that neglecting the wave nature of adsorbed hydrogen atoms and their electronic spin degeneracy leads to a 10× to 1000× overestimation of the rate constant for temperatures relevant to heterogeneous catalysis. These quantum effects are also found to be important for nanoparticle catalysts.