Catalysis Letters, Vol.125, No.3-4, 177-182, 2008
Enantiospecific adsorption of (R)-3-Methylcyclohexanone on naturally chiral Cu(531)(R&S) surfaces
The enantiospecific adsorption and desorption of (R)-3-methylcyclohexanone on naturally chiral Cu(531)(R&S) surfaces was studied using temperature programmed desorption. The Cu(531)(R&S) surfaces are of interest because they lie at the center of the stereographic triangle and thus, have the highest density of chiral adsorption sites possible on the surface of a face centered cubic metal. Several (R)-3-methylcyclohexanone desorption features were resolved in the TPD spectra from Cu(531)(R&S) surfaces and were assigned to desorption of molecules from terrace, step, and kink sites. The peaks associated with (R)-3-methylcyclohexanone desorbing from the R- and S-kink sites differed in temperature by 2.2 +/- 0.6 K. This corresponds to an enantiospecific difference in the desorption energies of 0.5 +/- 0.2 kJ/mol, with a preference for adsorption of (R)-3-methylcyclohexanone at the S-kinks on the Cu(531)(S) surface.