Adsorption of some substituted ethylene molecules on Pt(111) at 95 K Part 1: NEXAFS, XPS and UPS studies

Abstract The present work examines the interactions of propanoic acid, acrylic acid, acrolein and methylmethacrylate (MMA) with Pt(111) at 95 K to identify the nature of the interactions on this surface. The investigations are carried out by XPS, UPS and NEXAFS on monolayer and multilayer. Theoretical molecular orbital calculations are firstly performed to determine the nature of the bonding and antibonding orbitals of these molecules. The NEXAFS results show that the condensed multilayers of acrylic acid and acrolein are almost oriented parallel to the surface when propanoic acid and MMA are randomly oriented. The monolayer formed at 95 K for all these molecules are also oriented flat on Pt(111). However two different interaction processes are observed depending on the chemical structure of the compound: acrolein and propanoic acid are physisorbed when MMA and acrylic acid are in strong interaction with the metal but with an uncertainty on the chemisorption mode between a π-bonded state or a “di-σ like” state.