High-temperature desorption of benzene from zirconium surfaces

We report on the interaction of benzene with zirconium (0001) surfaces. Following adsorption at 150 or 170 K benzene desorbs near 715 K at exposures above one Langmuir. The high desorption temperature of benzene is indicative of the complicated kinetics that zirconium surfaces exhibit. For lower exposures benzene dissociates during heating and an increase of the oxygen content at the surface is detected. We propose that hydrogen from the dissociated layer(s) attracts subsurface oxygen and that an exchange of adsorbed carbon with this oxygen takes place.