Spatio-temporal pattern formation during CO oxidation on Pt(100) at low and intermediate pressures: A comparative study.

Experimental studies of CO oxidation on Pt(100) over two different ranges of reactant pressures will be reviewed. Using photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), spatio-temporal pattern formation was observed at temperatures between 420 and 540 K in the 10(-5) mbar pressure range. In an attempt to bridge the "pressure-gap," ellipsomicroscopy for surface imaging was used to follow pattern formation at temperatures around 600 K in the 10(-2) mbar pressure range. The features of the nonlinear phenomena, observed in these two different pressure regimes, are markedly different. This is shown by comparison of various qualitative and quantitative features of spatio-temporal pattern formation as well as the dynamics of the macroscopic reaction rate. Subsurface oxygen is proposed as a tentative alternative to the surface phase transition for oscillations in the reaction rate at higher temperatures and intermediate pressures. (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.