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Next: Reactions involving polysulfides Up: Oxidation and metal adsorption Previous: Thermodynamics and reaction mechanisms

Surface diffusion

The formation of gold islands is enhanced by the low activation energy for Au(0) diffusion along the S-S diagonal. We calculated this activation energy for diffusion to be less than four times the thermal energy if Au(0) travels along the S-S path by being in contact with the delocalized S 3p valence band density. Therefore, almost one percent of all Au(0) atoms can hop from one sulfur atom to the next at any time.



Karsten Knorr
1998-09-22