Experimental femtosecond-laser based investigations of model catalytic surface reactions

Sammanfattning: In order to be able to design novel catalytic processes more efficiently, detailed understanding of the catalyst-reactant interaction and the dynamics of the microscopic reaction steps is needed. The present thesis aims to contribute to the fundamental understanding of catalyst reactant systems by means of experiments using model systems in Ultra High Vacuum (UHV). The main body of work involves femtochemistry/mass spectrometry measurements as well as sum-frequency generation (SFG) measurements, which both make use of a femtosecond laser and a UHV sample environment. The results of two experimental investigations within the field of surface science are presented.The first paper concerns CO oxidation on ruthenium (0001) and in particular the energy transfer from substrate to adsorbates upon laser excitation. For these experiments laser-induced desorption was performed. We were able to control the branching ratios of competing mechanisms and understand the role of non-thermal electrons in the mechanisms.The second project aims to understand the adsorption and dehydrogenation of methanol on cuprous oxide (Cu2O) which is complicated by the fact that the cuprous oxide surface reconstructs differently under different conditions. The results presented in this part were acquired using mainly X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and SFG. We were able to understand the restructuring of the Cu2O surface and to show that methanol adsorbs molecularly on Cu2O(111) instead of dissociatively as a methoxy and hydrogen species as it does on Cu2O(100).