CORRECTED ELECTROSTATIC MODEL FOR DIPOLES ADSORBED ON A METAL-SURFACE

We present a dipole-dipole interaction model for polar molecules vertically adsorbed on a idealized metal surface in an approximate analytic form suitable for estimating the coverage dependence of the work function, binding energies, and thermal desorption activation energies. In contrast to previous treatments, we have included all contributions to the interaction energy within the dipole model, such as the internal polarization energy and the coverage dependence of the self-image interaction with the metal. We show that these can contribute significantly to the total interaction energy. We present formulae for both point and extended dipole cases.