Abstract
Understanding surface chemical kinetics is essential to the advancement
of the frontiers of many vital technologies, such as semiconductor
device fabrication and heterogeneous catalysis. This indisputable
driving force, along with the rapid development of a large repertoire
of atomic, molecular, and structural sensitive surface probes, has
been responsible for the built-up of an immense literature on the
chemical pathways and kinetics of a large number of molecules on an
equally large number of solid surfaces. A typical example of a surface
chemical study may involve the identification of surface chemical
species and gas phase products in a certain parameter phase space, as
well as the measurement of kinetic parameters for key reaction steps.
This practice is widely employed today to tackle a seemingly
inexhaustible number of important surface chemical problems. Such a
pragmatic approach is by no means mundane since the problems we are
tackling are increasingly more complex while the tools at hand are
ever more powerful. However, to some in the field, obtaining chemical
kinetics of another molecule on another surface is not as gratifying
as taking perhaps even a blurred glimpse into the elementary chemical
act responsible for the surface chemical reactivity. It is the purpose
of surface reaction dynamics to probe and understand the elementary
chemical acts responsible for the macroscopic kinetic behavior.
Understanding at such a fundamental level may allow us not only to
explain but also to predict surface reaction rates.