Adsorption and Reaction of CO and NO on Ir(111) under Near Ambient Pressure Conditions

The adsorption and reaction of CO and NO on Ir(111) have been studied by near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) together with low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and mass spectroscopy (MS). Under both ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) and NAP conditions CO molecules occupy on-top sites of the Ir(111) surface at room temperature (RT) by forming two-dimensional clusters. Exposure to NO under UHV conditions at RT induces partially dissociative adsorption, while NAP NO exposure leads to a Ir(111) surface that is covered by molecular NO. We conducted in-operando NAP-XPS/MS observation of the NO + ¹³CO reaction under a NAP condition as a function of temperature. Below 210 °C adsorption of NO is inhibited by CO, while above 210 °C the CO inhibition is released due to partial desorption of CO and dissociative adsorption of NO starts to occur leading to associative formation of N₂. Under the most active condition studied here the Ir surface is covered by a dense co-adsorption layer consisting of on-top CO, atomic N and O, which suggests that this reaction is not a NO-dissociation-limited process but a N₂/CO₂ formation-limited process.