Includes the van Arkel lectures 2011.
This course addresses results of experiments and dynamics calculations on reactive and non-reactive scattering of molecules from metal surfaces, based on recent papers from the scientific literature. Where possible, theory is confronted with experiment, and vice versa. Subjects include: experiments and calculations providing evidence of non-adiabatic effects in molecule-surface scattering, reactions of radicals with metal surfaces, the effects of phonons on molecule-surface reactions, the effect of the collision energy and the initial rovibrational state of the reacting molecule on the dissociative chemisorption of a diatomic molecule (H₂) and of a polyatomic molecule (CH₄), the effect of "alignment" and "orientation" on the dissociative chemisorpton of diatomic molecules ((H₂ and NO). This lecture series includes 6 two-hour lectures by the van Arkel Professor 2011, Prof. Daniel Auerbach.