Observation of room-temperature dehydrogenation of cyclohexane to benzene and cyclohexene on a common semiconductor surface, Si(111)-(7x7)

We report the first evidence of a surface-mediated dehydrogenation reaction of a saturated hydrocarbon, cyclohexane, at room temperature on a common semiconductor surface, Si(111)-(7x7). Although the adsorption of cyclohexane is considerably less than that of other unsaturated hydrocarbons, cyclohexane is found to dehydrogenate efficiently to benzene, cyclohexadiene and cyclohexene.