Interaction of NH 3 with oxygen‐pretreated Ni at 600 K

The aim of the present study was to investigate the reaction between ammonia and pre‐adsorbed oxygen on Ni at 600 K using metastable impact electron spectroscopy (MIES) and UPS techniques. For a given oxygen‐pretreated nickel surface, the changes in the MIES spectra along with ammonia adsorption can be decomposed into three different steps: a first domain without significant changes, a second domain corresponding to drastic changes in the intensity of a signal at 15.8 eV; and a third domain where no more change is detected. The first domain may correspond to the ammonia chemisorption on the surface, whereas the changes in the second domain would be attributed to surface dehydroxylation. The existence of NH x groups on the surface has been detected by UPS; they result from ammonia chemisorption. The changes in the MIES spectra have also been studied versus the initial oxygen uptake on Ni. It emerged that the first domain is larger with increasing initial oxygen exposure: this may be explained by the poorer surface reactivity of NiO, contrary to the oxygen‐adsorbed phase. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.