Comment on “HCl adsorption on ice at low temperature: a combined X-ray absorption, photoemission and infrared study” by P. Parent, J. Lasne, G. Marcotte and C. Laffon, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 7142

Abstract

On the basis of NEXAFS, photoemission and FTIR spectra of ice films with low doses of adsorbed HCl, the authors of the PCCP paper “HCl adsorption on ice at low temperature: a combined X-ray absorption, photoemission and infrared study”, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2011, 13, 7142, have come to conclusions regarding the behavior of submonolayer amounts of HCl at 50 K that contradict published results of the authors of this Comment. Our purpose is to argue that the conclusion, attributed going forward to PLML (authors' initials), that nearly 100% of HCl ionizes for dosage levels near to 0.16 monolayer (ML) or 0.3 Langmuir (L) at 50 K is questionable. Rather, we reaffirm our conclusions of much lower levels of ionization for similar temperatures and HCl dosages based on reactive ion scattering (RIS) and low energy sputtering (LES) data for ice films and FTIR spectra of ice nanocrystals. A second current paper by Ayotte et al., J. Phys. Chem. A, 2011, 115, 6002, that largely parallels in method and results the RAIR spectroscopy of PLML, is also given special notice.