Orientation of Benzoic Acid adsorbed on Nickel

Abstract

THE concept of aromatic systems interacting with metal surfaces has been used to explain data obtained by a variety of techniques. Suhrman and Schulz¹, using thin-film electrical resistance measurements, concluded that electrons are transferred to a nickel adsorbant surface by adsorbed benzene, triphenylmethane and naphthalene. The relatively low heat of adsorption of benzene on nickel powder was interpreted by Yu et al.² on the basis of the energy needed to destroy the aromatic ring. Blomgren et al.³, in investigating adsorption at the mercury-aqueous acid solution interface using the electrocapillary method, explained the amounts adsorbed as resulting from perpendicular orientations for straight chain aliphatic compounds and parallel orientations for planar aromatic substances. By determining the amount of adsorption from aqueous solution of various aromatic substances on to solid electrodes by bulk-phase depletion measurements, Conway et al.⁴ concluded that the molecular orientation was probably flat.