The role of rotational excitation in the activated dissociative chemisorption of vibrationally excited methane on Ni(100)
Abstract
We
have measured the sticking probability of methane excited to
= 1 of the ν3 antisymmetric
C–H stretching vibration on a clean Ni(100) surface as a function of rotational state
(J
= 0, 1, 2 and 3) and have investigated the effect of Coriolis-
= 1, ν3, J
= 2) are representative of all rovibrational sublevels of this vibrational
mode. These experiments shed light on the relative importance of rotational hindering and dynamical steering mechanisms in the dissociative chemisorption on Ni(100) and guide future attempts
to accurately
model methane dissociation
on nickel surfaces.