Hydrogen interactions with polycrystalline and with deposited titanium surfaces

Abstract The room temperature kinetics of hydrogen chemisorption and adsorption on polycrystalline and on deposited (sputter-deposited and evaporation-deposited) titanium surfaces were studied. Measurements of hydrogen surface accumulation were performed in a combined surface analyses system incorporating direct recoils spectrometry and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). There, three different types of surface cleaning procedure were applied: heat-flashing, sputtering and sputter-deposition of titanium on a polycrystalline titanium substrate. The surface chemisorption kinetics obtained for the deposited samples were compared with the total kinetics of the gas phase consumption, performed in a volumetric Wagener system. From this comparison it was possible to distinguish between topmost surface chemisorption and subsurface (or bulk) absorption kinetics. It was concluded that, for all types of surface studied, hydrogen chemisorbed according to a Langmuir-type random two-sites chemisorption model, with high (close to unity) zero-coverage sticking probabilities. The only difference between these surfaces was in their roughness factors, which increased going from the heat-flashed, through the sputtered, to the deposited surfaces. Following the initial stage of a chemisorbed surface layer formation, constant-rate absorption of hydrogen proceeded over a very wide range of exposures (greater than 10 4 Langmuirs). The accomodation probability of hydrogen during this linear stage was about 10 −2 . It is possible that this absorption process is controlled by the chemisorption of the H 2 on the surface hydride phase, formed by the earlier hydrogen chemisorption.