Thermal desorption of carbon monoxide from Mo(110)

Adsorption and desorption of carbon monoxide (CO) from Mo(110) have been investigated by temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The TPD spectra exhibit peaks in two temperature regions: 250-400 and 850-1100 K. The first region correspond to adsorption in molecular form, whereas the latter region corresponds to desorption of CO that has been dissociatively adsorbed. When the surface was saturated by CO, about 35% of the desorption intensity originates from the high-temperature region (recombinative desorption) and the remaining desorption signal is from the low-temperature region (molecular adsorption). Desorption parameters for molecular adsorbed CO were obtained using several different heating rates. Desorption energies were estimated to range from 0.9 eV for low coverages of CO to about 0.65 eV for high coverages. Corresponding prefactors were estimated to be in the range from 1 210¹¹ to 1 210⁹ s^{m 1}. The experimental data have been compared with Monte Carlo simulations of first-order TPD from a bcc (110) lattice, in which partial poisoning of adsorption sites by dissociated carbon and oxygen was modelled. Repulsive near-neighbour interactions were used.