Formation of Periodic Arrays of O Vacancy Clusters on Monolayer FeO Islands Grown on Pt(111)

The structural evolution of a Pt surface with 0.4 monolayer (ML) subsurface Fe on annealing in 1.1 × 10−7 kPa O2 was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. When the annealing temperature was 600 K, only dissociative adsorption of O2 occurred, which induced the local restructuring of surface regions. At 750 K, subsurface Fe atoms segregated onto the surface and were oxidized. When the annealing temperature was increased to 850 K, well defined monolayer FeO islands with periodic arrays of defects were formed. The defects were located at the hexagonal closest packed sites (fcc) of FeO Moiré unit cells and were either single oxygen vacancies or multiple oxygen vacancies consisting of six missing O atoms. The formation of periodic defects on monolayer FeO islands may be a way to construct active sites on Pt-Fe model catalysts.