Regensburg 2025 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 9: Surface Reactions

O 9.4: Talk

Monday, March 17, 2025, 11:15–11:30, H25

Hydrogen Atom Scattering from Graphene on Nickel — •Sophia Tödter, Yvonne Dorenkamp, and Oliver Bünermann — Institute of Physical Chemistry, Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany

Previously, H atom scattering from graphene grown on a Pt(111) substrate was investigated in detail by our group [1]. Depending on the experimental conditions, two energy loss channels were observed, one quasi-elastic and one strongly inelastic. For a C-H bond to form, the delocalized electronic structure of graphene has to be locally destroyed. This gives rise to an adsorption barrier. If the hydrogen atom cannot cross the barrier, it is elastically reflected. However, if the atom can cross the barrier, it loses a large amount of energy, which can lead to it sticking to the surface [1]. Pt(111) was chosen because it is a weakly interacting substrate. This allows comparison of the experimental data with simulations of H atom scattering from free-standing graphene. Although good qualitative agreement is achieved between experiment and theory, quantitative agreement cannot be achieved because of the non-negligible substrate effect.

To experimentally study the substrate effect we chose Ni(111) as an additional substrate and performed the same experiments. Ni(111) is a strongly interacting substrate and a much larger substrate effect is expected.

[1] H. Jiang et al., Imaging covalent bond formation by H atom scattering from graphene, Science 264, (2019).

Keywords: Graphene; Hydrogen; Scattering; Orientation dependence