An electron tunneling study of the chemisorption of formic acid on different surfaces

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Abstract
A comparison is made of inelastic electron tunnelingspectroscopy results for the chemisorption of formic acid into into two different surfaces. Details of the spectra are used to confirm that one surface is alumina and the other aluminum. A formate ion spectrum is obtained in both instances but the aluminumsurface shows both greater spectral intensity and a slight shift to higher energies for the peaks. In the case of the aluminumsurface the peak intensities are the same for both bias polarities as expected in the case of a single homogeneous barrier. For the alumina surface, on the other hand, there is an asymmetry in peak intensity due to the two insulator barriers.