Molecular adsorption at well-defined electrode surfaces: hydroquinone on Pd(111) studied by EC-STM

The interaction of hydroquinone (H2Q) with well-defined Pd(111) surfaces at preselected potentials in dilute H2SO4 has been studied by molecule-resolved electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM). H2Q spontaneously undergoes oxidative chemisorption to benzoquinone (Q), which adopts a slightly tilted parallel orientation. Evidently, the surface coordination is through the quinone pi-electron system. At potentials within the double-layer region, a close-packed well-ordered Pd(111)-(3 x 3)-Q adlattice was formed. A potential excursion to 0.7 V, a potential at which the solution-phase Q/H2Q redox reaction takes place, introduced disorder into the organic adlayer; this positive-potential-induced order-to-disorder phase transition is reversible because the ordered (3 x 3)-Q adlattice was regenerated when the potential reverted to 0.4 V. When the potential was poised at 0.2 V, a potential at which hydrogen evolution was initiated, an appreciable fraction of Q was (hydrogenatively) desorbed; the remnant Q molecules were agglomerated in small islands that retained the (3 x 3) symmetry of the full adlayer. Two possible structural models of the Pd(111)-(3 x 3)-Q adlattice are described.