This course addresses results of experiments and dynamics calculations on reactive and non-reactive scattering of molecules from metal surfaces, based on recent papers from the scientific literature. Where possible, theory is confronted with experiment, and vice versa. Subjects include: experiments and calculations providing evidence of non-adiabatic effects in molecule-surface scattering, reactions of radicals with metal surfaces, the effects of phonons on molecule-surface reactions, the effect of the collision energy and the initial rovibrational state of the reacting molecule on the dissociative chemisorption of a diatomic molecule (H2) and of a polyatomic molecule (CH4), the effect of “alignment” and “orientation” on the dissociative chemisorpton of diatomic molecules ((H2 and NO).
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