Structure sensitivity in acetylene reactions over bimetallic Pd/W surfaces

Acetylene reactions over a Pd/W(111) surface are found to exhibit size effects on the nanometer scale. Upon annealing 1 ML Pd/W(111), pyramidal facets are formed having bcc(211) faces with nanometer dimensions. The facets grow as a function of annealing time and temperature. Temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) spectra of benzene and ethylene, formed reactively following acetylene adsorption, change as a function of relative facet size. Results are compared to spectra from a similar experiment performed on planar Pd/W(211). TPD of chemisorbed benzene from several different Pd/W surface morphologies are also presented. The data show that structure sensitivity is exhibited for reactively-formed ethylene and benzene, as well as for chemisorbed benzene.