Cluster catalysis under UHV and ambient conditions

Within the scope of this work it could be shown that the adsorption strength of CO is weaker on small clusters in comparison to single crystals, leading to a reduced CO poisoning for small clusters and an additional mechanism at temperatures around 300 K. Additionally, the relevance of the non-reactive reverse spill-over was shown. A Metastable Impact Electron Spectroscopy / Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy (MIES/UPS) source has been implemented successfully and the adsorption properties of organic molecules on MgO/Mo(100) have been probed Recently, small palladium clusters have been probed using MIES/UPS and interesting, preliminary results have been gained. A vacuum lock system has been implemented allowing for the transfer for cluster samples to ambient conditions. The stability has been investigated by means of Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and the samples were probed under electro-catalytic conditions.