Tetra-bonding of C, N and O at solid surface

TL;DR

This paper explores the complex bonding mechanisms of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen on solid surfaces, emphasizing the importance of hybridization, charge redistribution, and localized energy states for understanding surface reactions and guiding material design.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed atomistic perspective on tetra-bonding involving C, N, and O, integrating various spectroscopic and microscopy observations to unify understanding of surface reactions.

Findings

Hybridization is essential for understanding surface reactions.

Localized energy states explain bonding and nonbonding interactions.

Guidelines for materials design based on bonding mechanisms.

Abstract

In order to gain advanced understanding of the kinetics and dynamics of C, N, and O reacting with a solid surface, it is necessary to consider the reaction from the perspectives of bond formation, bond dissociation, bond relaxation, bond vibration, and the associated charge redistribution and polarization and the energetic response of the involved atoms and valence electrons. The sp-orbital hybridization is found necessary for these concerned reactions associated with strongly anisotropic bonding and valence identities and the localized energy states of bonding pairs, nonbonding lone pairs, and the lone pair induced antibonding dipoles, as well as the hydrogen bond like and C-H bond like states, which could unify the observations using atomistic microscopy, crystallography, electronic spectroscopy, vibronic spectroscopy, and thermal desorption spectroscopy and provide guidelines for materials design.