J. Am. Chem. Soc. 142, 9453−9459(2020)

Contrasting Efficiency of Electron-Induced Reaction at Cu(110) in Aliphatic and Aromatic Bromides

Matthew J. Timm¹, Lydie Leung², Kelvin Anggara³, Tingbin Lim⁴, Zhixin Hu⁵, Simone Latini⁶, Angel Rubio⁷,and John C. Polanyi^8,*

1 Matthew J. Timm − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada

2 Lydie Leung − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada

3 Kelvin Anggara − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada; orcid.org/0000-0001-8598-8035

4 Tingbin Lim − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada

5 Zhixin Hu − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada; orcid.org/ 0000-0002-3253-6964

6 Simone Latini − Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, 22761 Hamburg, Germany; Center for Free-Electron Laser Science and Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany; orcid.org/0000-0001-9553-5259

7 Angel Rubio − Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, 22761 Hamburg, Germany; Center for Free-Electron Laser Science and Department of Physics, University of Hamburg, 22761 Hamburg, Germany; orcid.org/0000-0003-2060-3151

8 John C. Polanyi − Lash Miller Chemical Laboratories, Department of Chemistry and Institute of Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5H 3H6, Canada; orcid.org/0000-0002-4401-7758

* Email: John C. Polanyi ( john.polanyi@utoronto.ca )

Abstract

We report a comparative study of the electron-induced reaction of pentyl bromide (PeBr) and phenyl bromide (PhBr) on Cu(110) at 4.6 K, observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The induced dissociation of the intact adsorbed molecule for both reagents occurred at an energy of 2.0 eV, producing a hydrocarbon radical and a Br atom. Electron-induced C−Br bond dissociation was found to be a single-electron process for both reagents. The impulsive two-state (I₂S) model was used to describe the Br atom recoil as due to molecular excitation to a repulsive anti-bonding state, in which recoil of the dissociation products occurred due to C·Br repulsion along the prior C−Br bond direction. The measured reaction yield was 3 orders of magnitude greater for PeBr, 2.0 × 10⁻⁷ reactive events per electron, than for PhBr with a yield of 1.7 × 10⁻¹⁰. The low yield of dissociation products from the aromatic PhBr was attributed to the presence of two additional anionic states below the 2.0 eV energy limit, absent for the aliphatic PeBr; these additional anionic states for PhBr could provide a pathway for electron transfer to the surface in the case of the aromatic, but not the aliphatic, anion. The consequent shorter lifetime of the repulsive aromatic anion of PhBr is consistent with the observation of shorter mean recoil distance (3.2 Å) of its Br dissociation product, as compared with the markedly longer recoil (8.7 Å) of Br observed from the anion of PeBr.