The local electronic structures of the surface regions of tungsten, tungsten carbide, and platinum have been compared. Contrary to the hypothesis that the platinum-like catalytic activity of tungsten carbide results from the contribution of carbon valence electrons to the 5d band of tungsten, the width of the unfilled portion of the d band increases on going from tungsten to tungsten carbide.
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Houston et al. (1974) studied this question.
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