CO CO MOLECULAR-EXCHANGE AND ITS RELATION WITH DESORPTION OF CO/METAL/

The gas-surface molecular exchange of CO/Pd and CO/Rh was investigated by the isotope switch method to study the chemisorption kinetics of C O on metals. Some interesting correlations were found experimentally b etween the rate of exchange process and the kinetics of adsorption and desorption. A concerted exchange mechanism based on the delocalized c hemisorption model was postulated for better understanding of the expe rimental results. Analytic expressions for the adsorption and desorpti on kinetics of strongly bound molecules were derived which gave a sati sfactory explanation for the correlation formulas obtained from the CO molecular exchange experiment. The consistent relation of the delocal ization model for strong adsorption with the usual precursor theory fo r chemisorption is also discussed.