Ammonia adsorption and decomposition on a Ni(ll0) surface

Authors

• M. Grunze, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 0-1000 Berlin 33, and Free University of Berlin, West Germany
• M. Golze, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 0-1000 Berlin 33, and Free University of Berlin, West Germany
• R.K. Driscoll, Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Faradayweg 4-6, 0-1000 Berlin 33, and Free University of Berlin, West Germany
• Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

March 1981

Comments

Published in the Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A 1981. Copyright 1981 American Vacuum Society. Used by permission. For free online abstracts, see http://www.avs.org/literature.jvst.b.aspx

Abstract

We report UPS/XPS results for ammonia adsorption and decomposition on a Ni(1 10)-surface. At T < 130 K molecular adsorption of NH ₃ is observed to proceed with an initial sticking coefficient of s ₀-0.1. Increasing the temperature of the nickel surface above 150 K results in partial dissociation of the adsorbed NH ₃ molecules. The intermediate species are tentatively identified by their photoelectron spectra as NH-fragments. At temperatures above 350 K only atomic nitrogen is observed to populate the surface after NH ₃-exposures. Our data show a similar reactivity of the Ni(ll0) surface in the NH ₃-decomposition reaction as found on iron-single crystal planes. We briefly discuss this result with respect to the negligible activity of nickel as a catalyst for ammonia formation.