ESCA Studies of the Adsorptiou of CH₃OH, C₂H₅OH, HCHO, CH₃CHO and HCOOH on Mg Surfaces

The adsorption and decomposition of methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde and formic acid on magnesium surfaces had been studied by photoelectron spectroscopy （XPS and UPS）. At 295K, RCH₂OH （R=H or CH₃） dissociated to give RCH₂O（a） and H（a）. RCHO adsorbed as RCHO（a） as well as O²-（a） and RCH（a）. CH₂（a） was stable on the magnesium surfaces. while CH₃CH（a） desorbed as hydrocarbons.Formic acid adsorbed dissociatively on magnesium surfaces to give O^2-（a）, HCO（a）, OH（a） and HCOO（a）. At 500K, HCOO（a） dissociated completely to O^2-（a） and HCO （a）.