Determination of the contributions of individual excitations towards reactivity would greatly enhance our understanding of and ability to control reactions. The cleavage of the carbon-hydrogen bonds in methane using a metal catalyst was chosen for study due to its industrial significance. Previous studies have shown that selective laser excitation of methane's vibrational states yield varying enhancement effects on its reactivity. Small fractions of excited molecules in molecular beams make it difficult to determine the ground state sticking probability of methane on Ni(111). In order to determine the ground state sticking probability multiple molecular beam studies were conducted at constant temperature and varying kinetic energies. A plot of sticking probability versus kinetic energy allowed us to back out the ground state sticking probability. This value will be used to more accurately determine the sticking probability contributions from individual excitations in methane's carbon-hydrogen bonds.

Determination of the reactivity of the vibrational ground state of methane on Ni(111)

245th National Meeting (2013)

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