Abstract
Hydrogen adsorbed on metal surfaces possibly penetrates into “subsurface” sites, which might further diffuse into bulk. When temperature is raised, on the other hand, such absorbed hydrogen diffuses back to the surface via the subsurface site eventually desorbing from the surface. The kinetics of these absorption and desorption are ideally expressed by the potential energy surfaces of hydrogen near the surfaces. This article describes how the potential of hydrogen is described, and how the surface and subsurface sites influence the kinetics of absorption and desorption for Pd and Ni as examples. As well as these phenomena, the subsurface sites could serve to promote particular hydrogenation reactions occurring at surfaces. The mechanism of subsurface chemistry is discussed.
