Does methanol produce a stable methoxy species on Ru(0001) at low temperatures?

► Ru(0001) exposed to methanol at ~ 150 K. ► Soft XPS shows O 1s binding energy different from atomic O or CO. ► O 1s photoelectron diffraction (PhD) from atomic O consistent with known structure. ► O 1s PhD from molecular species shows no modulations expected for methoxy. ► Results consistent with recent suggestion of adsorbed intact methanol clusters.