We study the molecular properties of the interface formed between aqueous sulfuric acid solutions and gold electrodes by means of surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS). The shape of the SEIRAS spectra is observed to be strongly dependent on the deposition rate with which the gold electrodes are prepared. We find that the water molecules coordinating to coadsorbed sulfate anions become invisible in the SEIRAS spectra when the gold films are deposited at 1 Å/s, instead of the customary deposition rate of 0.1 Å/s employed in previous studies. Atomic force microscopy images of the gold deposits demonstrate that the increase of the gold deposition rate produces a decrease in the size of the nanoparticles composing the gold films. This suggests that water molecules coadsorbed with sulfate anions on small gold nanoparticles are oriented parallel to the surface. On the other hand, the fact that these water molecules are not detected by SEIRAS facilitates the study of the adsorption of hydronium cations, since these SEIRAS bands overlap. It is concluded that the adsorption of sulfate anions does not involve the coadsorption of any hydroniumÀwater complex, since the SEIRAS band of the latter species exhibits a steady decrease with increasing potential.

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is a heterogeneous catalytic reaction that creates approximately 2% of the world's fuel. It involves the synthesis of linear hydrocarbon molecules from a gaseous mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen at high pressures (from a few to tens of bars) and high temperatures (200-350 °C). To gain further insight into the fundamental mechanisms of this industrial process, we have used a purpose-built scanning tunnelling microscope to monitor a cobalt model catalyst under reaction conditions. We show that, after 30 minutes of reaction, the terraces of the cobalt catalyst are covered by parallel arrays of stripes. We propose that the stripes are formed by the self-assembly of linear hydrocarbon product molecules. Surprisingly, the width of the stripes corresponds to molecules that are 14 or 15 carbon atoms long. We introduce a simple model that explains the accumulation of such long molecules by describing their monomer-by-monomer synthesis and explicitly accounting for their thermal desorption.

A new scanning tunneling microscope reactor used for high-pressure and high-temperature catalysis studies Review of Scientific Instruments 79, 084101 (2008) To enable atomic-scale observations of model catalysts under conditions approaching those used by the chemical industry, we have developed a second generation, high-pressure, high-temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM): the ReactorSTM. It consists of a compact STM scanner, of which the tip extends into a 0.5 ml reactor flow-cell, that is housed in a ultra-high vacuum (UHV) system. The STM can be operated from UHV to 6 bars and from room temperature up to 600 K. A gas mixing and analysis system optimized for fast response times allows us to directly correlate the surface structure observed by STM with reactivity measurements from a mass spectrometer. The in situ STM experiments can be combined with ex situ UHV sample preparation and analysis techniques, including ion bombardment, thin film deposition, low-energy electron diffraction and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.

The effect of silver on the phase transition and microstructure of titanium oxide films grown by pulsed cathodic arc had been investigated by XRD, SEM and Raman spectroscopy. Following successive thermal annealing up to 1000 °C, microstructural analysis of annealed Ag-TiO2 films reveals that the incorporation of Ag nanoparticles strongly affects the transition temperature from the initial metastable amorphous phase to anatase and stable rutile phase. An increase of silver content into TiO2 matrix inhibits the amorphous to anatase phase transition, raising its temperature boundary and, simultaneously reduces the transition temperature to promote rutile structure at lower value of 600 °C. The results are interpreted in terms of the steric effects produced by agglomeration of Ag atoms into larger clusters following annealing which hinders diffusion of Ti and O ions for anatase formation and constrains the volume available for the anatase lattice, thus disrupting its structure to form rutile phase. The effect of silver on the optical and wetting properties of TiO2 was evaluated to demonstrate its improved photocatalytic performance.