STM AND SYNCHROTRON RADIATION STUDIES OF REDUCIBLE METAL OXIDES
WG2 members: Geoff Thornton, Chi-Lun Pang, David Grinter, Chi-Ming Yim, Yu Zhang, Tom Woolcot, Hadeel Hussain, Coinneach Dover, Bobbie-Jean Shaw, Andrew Mellor, Daniel Dayne
homepage: www.ucl.ac.uk/chemistry/research/group_pages/nano
The activity of the Thornton group is focused on the experimental study of metal oxide surfaces, particularly TiO2 (rutile and anatase) and cerium oxide.
Molecularly resolved STM image of the (111) top facet of a Pd nanocrystal (inset) covered with 0.5 ML of CO. The bright spots are CO, forming hollow-hollow c(4×2)-2CO structure on the top-facet.
Our main tools are STM supplemented by synchrotron radiation studies (XPEEM, SXRD, XAS). Topics such as molecular adsorption and reaction as well as metal growth which are pertinent to applications such as light-harvesting and catalysis are addressed using these techniques.
We operate three STMs (5 K, VT, RT) and the results are often interpreted with the aid of collaborations with theory groups.
