Interaction of oxygen with silver surface at high temperature

The interaction between oxygen and silver surface at high temperature was investigated by Auger electron spectrometer (AES), ISS, X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS), thermal desorption spectra (TDS) and high-resolution electron energy loss spectra (HREELS). When dosing oxygen to silver surface at 873 K, a new atomic oxygen species forms on the silver surface. This species of oxygen has very high thermal stability, and the TDS experiment shows no detectable desorption peak appearing below 973 K. The O-1s binding energy of this oxygen species is 529.3 eV and HREELS result gives a peak at 352 cm(-1). All these properties show that this kind of atomic oxygen species is different from those previously found on silver surface. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.