CH3Cl Dissociation, CH3 abstraction, and Cl adsorption from the dissociative scattering of supersonic CH3Cl on Cu(111) and Cu(410)

To study the elementary steps in the Rochow-Muller process, we bombarded Cu(111) and Cu(410) with 0.7-1.9 eV supersonic molecular beams (SSMB) of CH3Cl. We then identified the corresponding adsorbed species using X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) in conjunction with synchrotron radiation (SR). We found Cl as the dominant adsorbed species (much higher than that of adsorbed carbonaceous species) coming from the dissociative scattering of CH3Cl. We also found that the threshold kinetic energy of the reaction depends on the crystal surface orientation.