Gas–solid interactions with reactive and inert gas molecules by NAPUPS: can work function be a better descriptor of chemical reactivity?

is the most stable molecule, and the above changes observed underscore that they can be employed as probe atoms/molecules to explore even the minor changes that occur on a solid surface due to a variety of reasons. Further, if the solid surface undergoes any chemical/electronic changes due to gas-solid interaction, such as oxidation/reduction, the φ of the surface changes again; this highlights the precise identification of the changes that occur under the reaction/measurement conditions. Therefore, the change in the BE of the gas-phase features can be used to determine even the minor changes in the φ of solid surfaces during the reaction or due to the reaction. The present findings have implications in probing the surface changes that occur in any surface-dependent phenomena, such as heterogeneous catalysis, electrochemistry, and materials that are predominantly controlled by surface contribution, such as layered (2D) materials, nanomaterials.