Dissociative adsorption of hydrogen on thin Au films grown on Ir{1 1 1}

Adsorption and reaction of hydrogen (deuterium) on thin gold films grown on Ir{1 1 1} surface at ∼100 K have been studied with temperature-programmed desorption using a quadrupole mass spectrometer. Thin Au{1 1 1} films are epitaxially grown on the Ir{1 1 1}. Surprisingly, H2 (D2) can dissociatively adsorb on these Au{1 1 1} films, although it is well known that Au surfaces are noble enough not to dissociate hydrogen molecules [Nature 376 (1995) 238]. Moreover, we found that H (D) atoms can be confined into a Au thin film and/or the interface between an Ir surface and the thin Au film. We demonstrate how reactive thin Au films are.