Summary Abstract: The reaction of saturated and unsaturated hydrocarbons with single crystalline surfaces of iridium

Abstract

When studying the reactions of hydrocarbon molecules on transition metal surfaces, it is valuable to find similarities in the reaction chemistry of molecules which vary widely in structure. Such similarities are then characteristic of the surface and of the resulting surface species. Here, the reactions of several hydrocarbon molecules on the reconstructed Ir(110)-(1x2) surface and on the close-packed Ir(111) surface are considered. The Ir(110)-(1x2) surface has been shown to reconstruct by a missing row model in which every other row of surface atoms in the [001] crystallographic direction are absent [1]. The surface can be pictured as a series of two-layer deep troughs, the sides of which are (111) microfacets.