High pressure induced pseudo-oxidation of copper surface by carbon monoxide

Abstract Instantaneous electronic and structural modifications of Cu surfaces by high‐pressure CO were explored. At pressures over a millibar range the coverage of CO on the Cu(1 1 1) surface reached approximately one monolayer, and we observed several shake‐up peaks in the Cu 2p photoemission spectra for the first time by using ambient pressure X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. These shake‐up peaks resembled those obtained for oxidized surface Cu atoms. We propose that these changes are related to the generation of a copper–carbonyl complex and subsequent Cu surface restructuring owing to lateral CO–CO repulsions. The generality of this finding was investigated in two model reactions, the water‐gas shift and CO oxidation, on a Cu(1 1 1) surface, and we clearly identified the pseudo‐oxidation of Cu. These reversible changes were found to be independent of the orientation of the Cu surface and are of general importance for Cu‐based heterogeneous catalysis.