The chemisorption of CO molecules on polycrystalline nickel surface has been studied by investigating the resulting chemisorbed species with the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy at temperatures between 300K through 433K. It is found that the adsorbed CO molecules are dissociated by the simple C-O bond cleavage as well as by the disproportionation reaction at temperatures above 373K. The former type dissociation is more favored at low coverages and at elevated temperatures. The isotherms of CO chemisorption are obtained from the xps intensities of C 1s peaks, and then the activation energy of the dissociative adsorption is estimated as a function of the CO exposure. These activation energies are extrapolated to zero coverage to obtain the activation energy of chemisorption in which thermal C-O bond cleavage takes place. The value obtained is 38.1 kJ/mol.