Mechanism of the dissociative chemisorption of methane over Ir(110): trapping-mediated or direct?

A controversy exists regarding the dominant mechanism in the reaction of methane over transition metals. We present new insight regarding this subject by: (1) providing the first unambiguous evidence for the chemisorption of methane by a trapping-mediated mechanism; (2) demonstrating, with unprecede...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inChemical physics letters Vol. 266; no. 5; pp. 431 - 436
Main Authors Seets, D.C., Wheeler, M.C., Mullins, C.B.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier B.V 07.03.1997
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Summary:A controversy exists regarding the dominant mechanism in the reaction of methane over transition metals. We present new insight regarding this subject by: (1) providing the first unambiguous evidence for the chemisorption of methane by a trapping-mediated mechanism; (2) demonstrating, with unprecedented accuracy, agreement between bulb measurements of reaction probability and determinations employing molecular beam techniques, and (3) quantifying the contributions of differing mechanisms as a function of experimental conditions. Our results show conclusively that a trapping-mediated mechanism dominates dissociative chemisorption of methane over Ir(110) at low gas temperatures and that a direct mechanism dominates at high gas temperatures.
ISSN:0009-2614
1873-4448
DOI:10.1016/S0009-2614(97)00043-2