Interplay of first-order kinetic and thermodynamic phase transitions in heterogeneous catalytic reactions

Using the rate constants obtained on the basis of independent transient measurements and density functional theory calculations, we perform Monte Carlo (MC) simulations of the bistable kinetics of the N2O-CO reaction on Pd(110) at 450 K. In the absence of lateral interactions, the MC technique predicts a wide hysteresis loop in perfect agreement with the mean-field analysis. With attractive substrate-mediated lateral interactions resulting in the formation of (1x2) O islands and reducing the reaction rate inside islands, the hysteresis is found to be dramatically (about 5 times) narrower. This finding explains why the first-order kinetic phase transition experimentally observed in this reaction is not accompanied by hysteresis.