SURFACE-DIFFUSION OF MULTILAYER ADSORBED SPECIES

A model based on kinetic theory is derived for surface diffusion of multilayer adsorbed species on a homogeneous surface. A simple solution is obtained for expressing the concentration dependence of surface diffusivity. For monolayer adsorbate, the solution is reduced to the classical HIO model. This solution, in principle, requires no fitting parameters and is capable of predicting the unique concentration dependent behavior exhibited by multilayer surface diffusion, where the diffusivity first increases with surface concentration to a maximum followed by a decrease. Seventeen sets of experimental data from the literature are used to test the model, with fair results. It is also shown that heats of adsorption can be calculated from multilayer surface diffusivity data by using this model.