Dissociative Carbon Dioxide Adsorption and Morphological Changes on Cu(100) and Cu(111) at Ambient Pressures

Ambient-pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) and high-pressure scanning tunneling microscopy (HPSTM) were used to study the structure and chemistry of model Cu(100) and Cu(111) catalyst surfaces in the adsorption and dissociation of CO2. It was found that the (100) face is more active in dissociating CO2 than the (111) face. Atomic oxygen formed after the dissociation of CO2 poisons the surface by blocking further adsorption of CO2. This “self-poisoning” mechanism explains the need to mix CO into the industrial feed for methanol production from CO2, as it scavenges the chemisorbed O. The HPSTM images show that the (100) surface breaks up into nanoclusters in the presence of CO2 at 20 Torr and above, producing active kink and step sites. If the surface is precovered with atomic oxygen, no such nanoclustering occurs.