Atom probe surface reactions

Sample surfaces are atomically smooth surfaces of cleaved mica sheets for SFA, and various colloidal spheres and plates for a colloidal probe AFM. These surfaces can be modified using various chemical modification techniques, such as Langmuir-Blodged (LB) deposition [12,19] and silanization reactions [20,21]. For more detailed information, see the original papers and references texts. 

Metal atoms can be incorporated into polymers using two approaches. For probing new reactions between metal atoms and polymers a small-scale spectroscopic approach, sometimes referred to as the Fluid Matrix Technique (11), is used. The coreactant polymer matrix, containing on the order of 0.5 fll of polymer, is preformed on an optical surface. In the case of viscous fluids such as 2 the material is painted on the substrate and held at temperatures ranging typically from 200 to 270 K. The temperature is chosen to maintain low volatility but retain mobility. Under high vacuum [10 6 torr]... 

Atom probe techniques have been used to investigate adsorption processes and surface reactions on metals. The FIM specimen is first cleaned by the application of a high-voltage field evaporation pulse, and then exposed to the gas of interest. The progress of adsorption and surface reaction is monitored by the application of a second high-voltage desorption pulse and a controlled time delay. 

Chlorine and bromine atoms have been monitored in flow discharge systems by measuring the heat liberated on a probe when a pair of atoms recombine on the surface.43-51,52 Ogryzlo51 has employed a moveable nickel calorimeter for both Cl and Br atoms. Chemical titration of the chlorine atoms may then be developed by comparing the effect of the addition of a material that rapidly removes the atoms observed with the calorimetric probe. Ogryzlo51 has found that NOC1 may be used for titration of the Cl atoms as the reaction... 

The reactivity of a surface depends on many factors. These include the adsorption energies of chemical species and their dissociation behavior, their diffusion on the surface, the adatom-adatom interactions, the active sites where a chemical reaction can occur, and the desorption behavior of a new chemical species formed on the surface. The site specificity depends on at least three factors the atomic configuration of the surface, the electronic structures of the surface, and the localized surface field. In atom-probe experiments, the desorption sites can be revealed by a timegated image of an imaging atom-probe as well as by an aiming study with a probe-hole atom-probe, the electronic structure effect of a chemical reaction can be investigated by the emitter material specificity, and the surface field can be modified by the applied field. 

Early field ion emission studies of gas-surface interactions use field ionization mass spectrometry. Gas molecules are supplied continuously to the tip surface by a polarization force and by the hopping motion of the molecules on the tip surface and along the tip shank. These molecules are subsequently field ionized. The role of the emitter surface in chemical reactions is not transparent and has not been investigated in detail. Only in recent pulsed-laser stimulated field desorption studies with atom-probes are these questions addressed in detail. We now discuss briefly a preliminary study of reaction intermediates in NH3 formation in pulsed-laser stimulated field desorption of co-adsorbed hydrogen and nitrogen,... 

The participation of the germanium dimers in nucleophilic/electrophilic or Lewis acid/base reactions has been the subject of several investigations on the Ge(100)-2x1 surface [16,49,255,288,294,313-318]. As for the case of silicon, adsorption of amines has provided an excellent system for probing such reactions. Amines contain nitrogen lone pair electrons that can interact with the electrophilic down atom of a tilted Ge dimer to form a dative bond via a Lewis acid/base interaction (illustrated for trimethylamine at the Si(100)-2 x 1 surface in Ligure 5.17). In the dative bond, the lone pair electrons on nitrogen donate charge to the Ge down atom [49]. 

Block and co-workers [35] modified the atom probe to develop a method called pulsed-field desorption mass spectrometry (PFDMS), whereby a short high-voltage pulse desorbs all species present on the tip during a catalytic reaction. The repetition frequency of the field pulse controls the time for which the reaction is allowed to proceed. Hence, by varying the repetition frequency between desorption pulses in a systematic way, one can study the kinetics of a surface reaction [35], In fact, this type of experiment - where one focuses on a facet of desired structure, which may include steps and defects - comes close to one of the fundamental goals of catalyst characterization, namely studying a catalytic reaction on substrates of atomically resolved structure with high time resolution. 

Dispersion is defined as the fraction of active atoms in surface positions. Higher dispersions are achieved either as monolayers of atomically dispersed material or as very small crystallites. Both exist in practice. In either case, measurement of surface concentration is most easily performed by quantitative probing with selective molecules. There are three common approaches measurement of (I) chemisorption isotherms. (2) reaction titration, and (3) poison titration. 

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