Even the most compact and stable surfaces of Cu can undergo massive reconstructions in the presence of reactant gases. The pristine surface consisting of atomically flat terraces separated by step edges and screw dislocations disintegrates into many clusters with well-defined geometries covering the surface. The orientation and geometry of these clusters depend of the orientation of the crystal surface and the choice of reactant gas. Such a behavior originates from the difference in gain in energy of reactant adsorption on newly formed low-coordinated sites and initial high-coordinated flat sites being larger than the formation energy of these clusters. Since such phenomena were not observed on Pt-group metals before, our findings open up a new question in the field whether it is a general for all the soft materials such as Au, Ag, Zn, etc. or not. The need for more of this kind of ambient pressure surface science studies is crystal clear.

Response of the atomic structure of copper surfaces to reactant molecules at ambient pressures

251st National Meeting (2016)

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