AP-XPS Study of the Reaction of O 2 and CO 2 with Zn–Au(111) Surface Alloys: Activation of O–O/C–O Bonds and the Formation of ZnO
Synchrotron-based ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS) was used to study the dissociation of O 2 and CO 2 on Zn-Au(111) alloys which contained 0.2-0.3 monolayers of zinc. Although Au(111) is inert, the alloys displayed a high activity for the cleavages of O-O and C-O bonds at room temperature with the formation of ZnO x species. Dissociative adsorption of O 2 at 300 K destroyed the alloys and the results of AP-XPS pointed to the co-existence of two types of oxygen species on the surface: ZnO x and chemisorbed O atoms (O chem ) on Au or the Au-ZnO interface. Annealing from room temperature to 600 K induced a O chem → ZnO x transformation that reflected the poor stability of O atoms on Au(111). The Zn-Au(111) systems exhibited a reactivity towards CO 2 that was much larger than that seen for Au(111), Cu(111) or surfaces of late transition metals like, Ni, Pd or Pt. At 300 K, CO 2 underwent partial dissociation depositing large amounts of O chem on the surface with minor formation of ZnO x . In addition, the deposited O chem reacted with CO 2 to form surface carbonate groups. Dosing of CO 2 at 500-600 K mainly led to the formation of ZnO x and the surface carbonate almost disappeared. In the presence of hydrogen, i.e. reaction feeds with a CO 2 to H 2 ratio of 1:3, the surface chemistry at 300 K was very similar to that seen for pure CO 2 with the formation of ZnO x and carbonate groups. In contrast, at 500-600 K, reaction with hydrogen induced the removal of ZnO x and CO 3 /HCOO species. Finally, our AP-XPS results are consistent with the idea that CO 2 hydrogenation on AuZn alloys involves a redox process where there is sequential oxidation by CO 2 and reduction by H 2 to yield methanol.