The dissociative chemisorption of oxygen and water on Fe, Ti, and adlayers of each metal on the other have been explored via surface electron spectroscopies. Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) have been used to monitor the reactions of titanium and iron with low exposures (from one to several hundred langmuirs) of oxygen and/or water vapor. Comparisons and contrasts are drawn between bulk metals and adlayer alloys–alloys formed by vapor depositing a few angstroms of one metal on top of a relatively thick film of the other metal. Most notable is the ability of a very thin layer of titanium to lessen the reactivity of a thick iron film toward oxygen. |