AVS 47th International Symposium
    Surface Science Wednesday Sessions
       Session SS2+VT-WeA

Paper SS2+VT-WeA3
Molecular Adsorption and Growth of n-butane Adlayers on Pt(111)

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 2:40 pm, Room 209

Session: Adsorption and Desorption Phenomena I
Presenter: J.F. Weaver, University of Florida
Authors: J.F. Weaver, University of Florida
M. Ikai, Stanford University
A. Carlsson, Stanford University
R.J. Madix, Stanford University
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The molecular adsorption of n-butane and the growth of n-butane adlayers on Pt(111) have been investigated using molecular beam techniques, temperature-programmed desorption and low-energy electron diffraction. Our results indicate that four adlayer phases develop sequentially as the n-butane coverage increases from the submonolayer to second layer ranges at surface temperatures near 98 K. The structural properties of the adlayer and the kinetics for adlayer growth will be discussed in detail. Interestingly, although the changes in adlayer structure significantly affect the rates of n-butane desorption and surface diffusion, the adsorption probability of n-butane on Pt(111) is found to increase smoothly with increasing coverage. This finding indicates that the long-range arrangements and orientations of molecules in the n-butane adlayer have a negligible influence on the intrinsic adsorption dynamics, suggesting that the energy transfer processes that facilitate adsorption are highly localized.