On the Electronic Mechanisms of Specific Interactions between Surfactants and a Metal Surface

Abstract

This work considers the electronic mechanism of specific interactions between a neutral surfactant and an uncharged metal surface during an elementary adsorption event. Special attention was paid to a role of the residual electronic interactions upon the exchange of electron density between the valence adsorbate orbital and the Fermi sea of metal electrons during adsorption. This interaction was simulated by the Coulomb electron–hole interactions through a potential barrier separating the surfactant and metal-electron systems. As this task concerns the problems associated with the Fermi edge singularities, the Nozières–de Dominicis theory, which enables one to study an electron’s contribution to the energetics and kinetics of adsorption event, was used to interpret the donor–acceptor effects. The expressions of spectral characteristics of the localized electron density and tunneling time were analyzed in the context of the problem. There is a positive correlation between the surfactant adsorption parameters and the scattering phases of conductivity electrons screened in the metal by a potential field created by a hole at the valence surfactant orbital.