Adsorption and desorption of HCl on Pt(111)

The adsorption and desorption of HCl on Pt(111) is investigated by temperature programmed desorption, infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, and low energy electron diffraction. Five peaks are identified in the desorption spectra prior to the onset of multilayer desorption. At low coverage (Theta < 0.25 monolayers (ML)), desorption peaks at similar to 135 and 200 K are observed and assigned to recombinative desorption of dissociated HCl. At higher coverages, desorption peaks at 70, 77, and 84 K are observed. These peaks are assigned to the desorption of molecularly adsorbed HCl. The infrared spectra are in agreement with these assignments and show that HCl deposited at 20 K is amorphous but crystallizes when heated above 60 K. Kinetic analysis of the desorption spectra reveals a strong repulsive coverage dependence for the desorption energy of the low coverage features (Theta < 0.25 ML). The diffraction data indicate that at low temperature the adsorbed HCl clusters into ordered islands with a (3 x 3) structure and a local coverage of 4/9 with respect to the Pt(111) substrate.