KINETICS OF MONOLAYER FORMATION ON PATCHWISE HETEROGENEOUS SURFACES - A MONTE-CARLO STUDY

The kinetics of a monolayer formation on model heterogeneous surfaces, consisting of only two types of sites grouped into finite homottatic patches is studied by Monte Carlo simulations. The effects of the difference in adsorption energies and of the size of homottatic domains on the dynamics of adsorption process are discussed. The dynamics of condensation for systems undergoing the first order phase transition is found to be essentially the same as found in the kinetic two-dimensional Ising model, though heterogeneity effects are present, and may considerably influence the process of nucleation. In the case of systems with highly heterogeneous surfaces, the kinetics changes drastically. In particular, the effects due to the size of homottatic domains are much more important than in adsorption on weakly heterogeneous surfaces. Besides, the effects due to metastability are not present at all and as the difference in adsorption energies for different sites increases the kinetics becomes more and more Elovich-like.