Associative oxygen species on the oxidized silver surface formed under O2 microwave excitation

The experimental methods of X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopies (XPS and UPS, respectively) and the quantum mechanical calculations are applied for analysis of oxygen states on the silver oxide surface. At low temperatures ( T <470 K), the silver surface is intensively oxidized by a microwave oxygen discharge to form cuprite Ag 2 O. Two adsorbed oxygen species of the atomic (dissociative) and molecular (associative) nature can be adsorbed on the cuprite Ag 2 O surface. A comparison of the UPS data and the DFT calculations of molecular models Ag 2 –O 2 and Ag 2 –O 3 shows that the formation of ozonide-like structures is preferable to that of peroxide species. Thermal stability and the reaction probability of the adsorbed states are investigated.