AVS 51st International Symposium
    Surface Science Tuesday Sessions
       Session SS-TuP

Paper SS-TuP44
The Adsorption of Benzene on Oxide Surfaces

Tuesday, November 16, 2004, 4:00 pm, Room Exhibit Hall B

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: M.-S. Chen, Texas A&M University
Authors: M.-S. Chen, Texas A&M University
A.K. Santra, Texas A&M University
D.W. Goodman, Texas A&M University
Correspondent: Click to Email
The orientation and growth of benzene on various well-ordered oxide surfaces have been investigated with high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), Auger spectroscopy (AES) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). Benzene on the Mo(112)-c(2x2)-[SiO4] surface is bound with its molecular plane parallel to the surface plane at submonolayer coverages. At intermediate coverages (1-3 ML), in contrast to benzene adsorption on metal surfaces, a layer-by-layer growth model where the benzene molecules bond parallel to the surface is observed. This is the first reported observation of benzene multilayer growth where the benzene molecules remain exclusively in a configuration parallel to the surface plane. In contrast, on SiO2 and TiOx thin films grown on the Mo(112), a tilted adsorption geometry with layer-by-layer grew up to 5-6 ML was found with a crystalline phase occurring at higher coverages. On a TiOx-SiO2 surface, where both parallel and tilted-up geometries coexist, crystalline benzene clusters formed at the second layer.