The adsorption and reaction of H2O on clean and oxygen covered Ag(110)

The adsorption and reaction of water on clean and oxygen covered Ag(110) surfaces has been studied with high resolution electron energy loss (EELS), temperature programmed desorption (TPD), and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy. Non-dissociative adsorption of water was observed on both surfaces at 100 K. The vibrational spectra of these adsorbates at 100 K compared favorably to infrared absorption spectra of ice Ih. Both surfaces exhibited a desorption state at 170 K representative of multilayer H2O desorption. Desorption states due to hydrogen-bonded and non-hydrogen-bonded water molecules at 200 and 240 K, respectively, were observed from the surface predosed with oxygen. EEL spectra of the 240 K state showed features at 550 and 840 cm−1 which were assigned to restricted rotations of the adsorbed molecule. The reaction of adsorbed H2O with pre-adsorbed oxygen to produce adsorbed hydroxyl groups was observed by EELS in the temperature range 205 to 255 K. The adsorbed hydroxyl groups recombined at 320 K to yield both a TPD water peak at 320 K and adsorbed atomic oxygen. XPS results indicated that water reacted completely with adsorbed oxygen to form OH with no residual atomic oxygen. Solvation between hydrogen-bonded H2O molecules and hydroxyl groups is proposed to account for the results of this work and earlier work showing complete isotopic exchange between H216O(a) and 18O(a).