Simulation of the effect of surface-oxide formation on bistability in CO oxidation on Pt-group metals

The kinetics of CO oxidation on Pt-group metals are known to often exhibit bistability. During the low-reactive regime observed at relatively high CO pressure, the surface is primarily covered by CO and the reaction rate is controlled by O2 dissociation. During the high-reactive regime at relatively low CO pressure, in contrast, the surface is mainly covered by oxygen and the reaction rate is proportional to CO pressure. In the latter case, the adsorbed oxygen may be in the chemisorbed state and/or may form surface oxide. The experiments indicate that the formation of surface oxide often occurs via the island growth and accordingly should be described in terms of the theory of first-order phase transitions. Here, the author proposes a generic lattice-gas model satisfying this requirement and allowing one to execute the corresponding Monte Carlo simulations. Systematically varying the model parameters determining the oxide stability, he classifies the likely scenarios of the bistable reaction kinetics complicated by oxide formation.