The delocalized nature of chemical bonding at a catalytic metal surface.

Structural changes on platinum (Pt) surfaces influence molecule–metal bond strength over long ranges: step-step distance variations up to 100 angstroms shift adsorption energies by as much as 0.2 electron volts.

• Why it matters: Bonding at catalytic metal surfaces depends on hybridization between localized adsorbate orbitals and delocalized metal bands, but the spatial reach of that delocalization for bond strength was unclear.
• What they did: Using velocity-resolved kinetics, the study measured adsorption energies for three molecules bound at atomic steps of Pt while varying the step-step distance over 100 angstroms.
• The result: The bond-strength response was molecule-specific, linked to hybridization with symmetry-selected metal orbital bands that react differently to structural modifications, informing how adsorption may behave on Pt nanoparticles.

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