Trends in adsorbate induced core level shifts

Photoelectron core level spectroscopy is commonly used to monitor atomic and molecular adsorption on metal surfaces. As changes in the electron binding energies are convoluted measures with different origins, calculations are often used to facilitate the decoding of experimental signatures. The interpretation could in this sense benefit from knowledge on trends in surface core level shifts for different metals and adsorbates. Here, density functional theory calculations have been used to systematically evaluate core level shifts for (111) and (100) surfaces of 3d, 4d, and 5d transition metals upon CO, H, O and S adsorption. The results reveal trends and several non-intuitive cases. Moreover, the difficulties correlating core level shifts with charging and d-band shifts are underlined.