Adsorption of H2O on single crystal CuO

The adsorption of water on a cleaved single crystal of CuO has been studied . Photoemission was used to record the changes in the valence band region o n dosing. With a 10 L exposure to the surface at 128 K, the interaction was found to be non-dissociative. There is some evidence for the formation of multilayers on the CuO crystal at these low temperatures. As the temperatur e of the CuO sample increases, the H2O dissociates leaving OH on the surfac e. A comparison is made with the literature, particularly for the adsorptio n of water on semiconducting oxides and cuprate superconductors. (C) 1999 E lsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.