Initiation of Surface Processes by Resonance IR Laser Excitation—State and Perspectives

Abstract

A possibility to initiate surface reactions by resonant IR laser radiation has been studied. Several systems have been tried, including those with linkage isomerism, such as CO bound to cations in zeolites, decomposition of adsorbed unstable molecules like ozone or HN₃, reactions of vibrationally excited molecules with coadsorbed species, or the effect of resonance excitation of hydroazide acid HN₃ upon its ability to induce the protonation of dimethylpyridine adsorbed on silanol groups of silica. In almost all the experiments, the changes caused by irradiation were weak, and isotopic selectivity was rather poor. The choice of systems and possible ways to improve their characteristics are discussed as well as the perspectives of their usage for isotope separation or other practical tasks.

Keywords

IR spectroscopy / Vibrational excitation / Adsorption / Zeolites / Linkage isomerism / Carbon monoxide / Ozone / Proton transfer

Acknowledgments

All laser irradiation experiments were carried out at the Resource Center of St. Petersburg State University Science Park “Centre for Optical and Laser Materials Research” (https://researchpark.spbu.ru/laser-rus). The authors are thankful to L. Khriachtchev (University of Helsinki, Finland) for the help in experiments with laser for 4300 cm−1 region and measurements at 8K.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, A.T. and O.P.; Methodology, A.T. and T.A.; Software, O.P.; Validation, A.T., O.P. and T.A.; Formal Analysis, A.T.; Investigation, O.P. and T.A.; Data Curation, O.P. and T.A.; Writing—A.T.; Visualization, O.P.; Supervision, A.T.; Project Administration, A.T.; Funding Acquisition, A.T.

Ethics Statement

Ethical review and approval are not applicable, since the study did not involve humans or animals.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Data can be available on request.

Funding

This research was funded by RSCF grant number 24-23-00606, https://rscf.ru/project/24-23-00606/

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Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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