How sulfur controls nucleation of Ag islands on Ag(111)

Mingmin Shen, Cynthia J. Jenks, J. W. Evans, P. A. Thiel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Pre-adsorbed sulfur controls nucleation of Ag islands on Ag(111), at coverages above a very small critical value. Sulfur can exert opposite effects: it accelerates mass transfer of Ag to steps and hence inhibits nucleation under some conditions, but it impedes mass transfer and hence enhances nucleation under others. The effect depends upon sulfur coverage and temperature. The inhibition or acceleration of mass transfer correlates with the existence or absence of a semi-static, ordered arrangement of Ag3S3 clusters.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)83-89
Number of pages7
JournalTopics in Catalysis
Volume54
Issue number1-4
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2011
Externally publishedYes

Funding

Acknowledgements This work was supported by NSF Grant CHE-0809472. The work was performed at the Ames Laboratory which is operated for the USDOE by Iowa State University under Contract No. DE-AC02-07CH11358. We thank Selena M. Russell for assistance in preparing the manuscript.

Keywords

  • Ag(111)
  • Hydrodesulfurization
  • Scanning tunneling microscopy
  • Silver
  • STM
  • Sulfur

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