Luminescence excitation in reactive molecular CO + O2 collisions on the surface of Y2O3-Eu

It is shown that the CO + O 2 → CO 2 catalytic reaction on the surface of Y 2 O 3 -Eu may lead to electronic excitation of Eu 3+ luminescence centers due to the chemical energy release. The luminescence observed allows one to study the interaction between molecular particles of ultralow (thermal) energies with surface by optical methods.