AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Surface Science Division Thursday Sessions
       Session SS-ThM

Paper SS-ThM11
Growth and Characterization of Cu/ZnO on Au(111) as a Model Catalyst System

Thursday, November 3, 2011, 11:20 am, Room 107

Session: Oxide Surface Structure & Reactivity
Presenter: Xingyi Deng, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Authors: X. Deng, National Energy Technology Laboratory
J. Lee, National Energy Technology Laboratory
C. Matranga, National Energy Technology Laboratory
Correspondent: Click to Email
Model Cu/ZnO catalysts have been grown on a single crystal Au(111) substrate and characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Growth of ZnO on Au(111) is achieved by oxidation of Zn that has been deposited onto the substrate or by reactive evaporation of Zn in the presence of an oxidizer. XPS confirms that Zn has been oxidized and STM reveals that ZnO forms a uniform overlayer on Au(111) with an apparent height of ~6 Å. STM also reveals that the ZnO overlayer on Au(111) forms an ordered hexagonal Moiré pattern with a periodicity of 25 Å, possibly due to the lattice mismatch between the oxide and growth substrate. The atomic structure of the ZnO overlayer is also resolved with STM, showing a hexagonal unit cell with a lattice constant of 3.2 Å. Cu is then deposited onto the ZnO overlayer by evaporation, and STM is used to characterize the structure and morphology of the Cu/ZnO system. The model Cu/ZnO on Au(111) system will be compared to “real world” Cu/ZnO catalysts used for CO2 hydrogenation and low temperature water gas shift reactions.