Experimental and theoretical study of CO collisions with CH3- and CF3-terminated self-assembled monolayers
Abstract
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the dynamics of collisions of the CO molecule with organic surfaces. Experimentally, we scatter CO at 60 kJ mol-1 and 30° incident angle from regular (CH 3 -terminated) and ω -fluorinated (CF3 -terminated) alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) and measure the time-of-flight distributions at the specular angle after collision. At a theoretical level, we carry out classical-trajectory simulations of the same scattering process using CO/SAM potential-energy surfaces derived from ab initio calculations. Agreement between measured and calculated final translational energy distributions justifies use of the calculations to examine dynamical behavior of the gas/surface system not available directly from the experiment. Calculated state-to-state energy-transfer properties indicate that the collisions are notably vibrationally adiabatic. Similarly, translational energy transfer from and to CO rotation is relatively weak. These trends are examined as a function of collision energy and incident angle to provide a deeper understanding of the factors governing state-to-state energy transfer in gas/organic-surface collisions. © 2009 American Institute of Physics.
Publication Title
Journal of Chemical Physics
Recommended Citation
Alexander, W., Morris, J., & Troya, D. (2009). Experimental and theoretical study of CO collisions with CH3- and CF3-terminated self-assembled monolayers. Journal of Chemical Physics, 130 (8) https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3072012
