Adsorption of CO on Ni/Cu(110) bimetallic surfaces

The adsorption behavior of CO on bimetallic Ni/Cu(110) surfaces has been studied experimentally by thermal-desorption spectroscopy and theoretically by density-functional theory (DFT) calculations. The bimetallic surfaces were produced either by evaporation of nickel or by decomposition of $\text{Ni}{(\text{CO})}_{4}$ on Cu(110). Adsorption of CO at 180 K on such a bimetallic surface yields three new adsorption states with adsorption energies between that of CO on clean Cu(110) and clean Ni(110). The new desorption peaks from the bimetallic surface, designated as ${\ensuremath{\beta}}_{1}\text{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\beta}}_{3}$, can be observed at 250, 300, and 360 K, respectively. These new states are most pronounced when $\frac{1}{2}$ monolayer of nickel is present on the copper surface. DFT calculations, using the Vienna ab initio simulation package code, were performed to identify the most probable Ni/Cu atomic arrangements at the bimetallic surface to reconcile with the experimental results. It turned out that CO adsorption on nickel dimers consisting of in-surface and adjacent subsurface atoms can best explain the observed experimental data. The result shows that CO adsorption is determined by local (geometric) effects rather than by long-range (electronic) effects. These findings should contribute to a better understanding of tailoring catalytic processes with the help of bimetallic catalysts.