Jj. Cowell et al., Bonding and reactivity of styrene on Cu(110): heterogeneous alkene epoxidation without the use of silver, SURF SCI, 437(1-2), 1999, pp. 1-8
Styrene adsorption on oxygenated Cu(110) has been studied by temperature pr
ogrammed reaction, fast XPS and NEXAFS. When the molecule is adsorbed on Cu
metal sites in the presence of co-adsorbed oxygen, it undergoes efficient
epoxidation to styrene epoxide. This is the first demonstration of alkene e
poxidation on the surface of a clean metal, other than silver. However, sty
rene adsorbed on the 'oxidic' p(2 x 1)-O surface is catalytically inert. Th
e NEXAFS data indicate that the reactant molecule is oriented approximately
parallel to the surface plane on both the clean and oxidic p(2 x 1)-O surf
aces, so that the very different reactivity is unlikely to be due to geomet
rical effects. The implications of these findings for the mechanism of hete
rogeneous alkene epoxidation are discussed. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V.
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