Interaction of nitric oxide with Pt(1 0 0). A fast X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study

The interaction of nitric oxide (NO) with the clean, reconstructed (1 0 0) surface of platinum is studied using synchrotron X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. It is found that molecular adsorption at 200 K yields two different molecular NO species. Above 250 K, NO is found to adsorb both dissociatively and molecularly, giving rise to an oxygen/NO coadsorption structure with a molecular coverage that is half of that at 200 K. At 375 K, adsorption is found to be exclusively dissociative. Furthermore, it is found that NO dissociation yields two different atomic oxygen species. No significant coverage of atomic nitrogen is observed indicating fast combination of nitrogen atoms upon NO dissociation.