Surface sensivity

Barium titanate (BaTiOj), a perovskite-type electro-ceramic material, has been extensively studied and utilized due to its dielectric and ferroelectric properties. The wide applications of barium titanates include multiplayer capacitors in electronic circuits, nonlinear resistors, thermal switches, passive memory storage devices, and transducers. In addition, barium titanate can be used for chemical sensors due to its surface sensivity to gas adsorption. 

The mechanism may change from acids to alkalis in some cases [365], This may be related to the higher sensivity of the Fe surface to oxidation in alkaline solutions [365, 367], Actually, the corrosion of Fe proceeds also under moderate cathodic load [368]. Impedance measurements have suggested that the classical mechanisms of hydrogen evolution is probably inadequate to describe the situation on Fe [377], A surface diffusion step with spillover of hydrogen to sites with lower M-H energy has been suggested. Adsorption of CN- interferes with such a diffusion. 

Xu HX, Aizpuma J, Kail M, Apell P (2000) Electromagnetic contributions to single molecule sensivity in surface-enhanced Raman scattering. Phys Rev E 62(3) 4318... 

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