Dissociative adsorption of supersonic CH3Cl on Cu oxide Surfaces: Cu2O(111) and bulk Cu2O precursor “29”-Structure on Cu(111)

To examine the elementary steps of the Rochow-Müller process we placed copper oxides, viz., Cu2O(1 1 1) and the bulk Cu2O precursor "29"-structure on Cu(1 1 1), under supersonic molecular beams (SSMB) of CH3Cl. The SSMB energies range from 0.5-1.9 eV. We employed X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) in conjunction with synchrotron radiation (SR) to determine the resulting adsorbed species present. We identified two reaction paths, viz., Reaction I and Reaction II. Reaction I involves dissociative adsorption of CH3Cl. In Reaction II, CH3Cl also dissociates, but with Cl as the dominant adsorbed species (higher than that of adsorbed carbonaceous species, as observed for Reaction I). For the incident energies and exposure conditions considered, we found Reaction II as the dominant reaction path for CH3Cl reaction on both Cu2O(1 1 1) and the "29"-structure on Cu(1 1 1).