Competing ternary surface reaction CO + O₂ + H₂ on Ir(111)

The CO oxidation on platinum-group metals under ultra-high-vacuum conditions is one of the most studied surface reactions. However, the presence of disturbing species and competing reactions are often neglected. One of the most interesting additional gases to be treated is hydrogen, due to its importance in technical applications and its inevitability under vacuum conditions. Adding hydrogen to the reaction of CO and O₂ leads to more adsorbed species and competing reaction steps towards water formation. In this study, a model for approaching the competing surface reactions CO+O ₂ + H₂ is presented and discussed. Using the framework of bifurcation theory, we show how the steady states of the extended system correspond to a swallowtail catastrophe set with a tristable regime within the swallowtail. We explore numerically the possibility of reaching all stable states and illustrate the experimental challenges such a system could pose. Lastly, an approximative first-principle approach to diffusion illustrates how up to three stable states balance each other while forming heterogeneous patterns.