The Surface Kinetics input file includes information about surface sites (phases), surface site species, bulk phases, bulk species, thermodynamic data, and the surface reaction mechanism. At the beginning of the file, a user may specify an optional material name. This is followed by site data, then by bulk data. Thermodynamic data may follow these phase and species data, and reaction data are specified last. Each of these sections of data are optional. Such sets of information can be repeated for any number of different materials. The thermodynamic data for the species may be included in the Surface Kinetics input file and/or from a Thermodynamic Database file (for example, therm.dat).
Note: The description of surface kinetics input in this chapter is similar to that of the Surface Kinetics Input in the Chemkin Input Manual. However, there are a few reaction-rate formulations that are not allowed within KINetics because the KINetics API does not treat plasmas. Specific reaction formulations that have therefore been omitted here are: a) Bohm Velocity Limit for Ions, b) Ion-energy Dependent Rates, and c) Ion-energy Dependent Yield.
The syntax for the four types of input is described in this section. With the exception of the thermodynamic data, all input is format free, although data outside of column 180 will be ignored.