PSI Seminar: Oxide Interfaces: Playing away from UHV
| Dates: | 30 October 2024 |
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| Times: | 12:00 - 13:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | Photon Science Institute |
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| Who is it for: | University staff, Current University students |
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| Speaker: | Dr Rob Lindsay |
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Join us for this PSI seminar with guest speaker Dr Rob Lindsay. Preparing and/or probing metal oxide interfaces away from ultra-high vacuum (UHV) can be hugely challenging but is of immense importance for elucidating properties of technological relevance. In this presentation, Dr. Lindsay will outline some of the endeavours of my group and collaborators to contribute to this area. Firstly, work conducted on wet-chemically prepared single crystal metal oxide surfaces will be described, focusing on structure determinations of rutile-TiO2(110) and rutile-TiO2(011) with surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD). It will be demonstrated that non-UHV surface preparation can lead to significantly different surface terminations. The potential importance of these results will be discussed, including enhancing our understanding of the superhydrophilicity and photocatalytic activity of titania interfaces.
In the second part of the presentation, Dr. Lindsay will describe measurements to understand the occurrence of atmopheric corroson prior to surface condensation of bulk liquid water, i.e., at a relative humidity (RH) below 100%. The focus will be on the interaction between water vapour (0% ? RH ? 100%) and an oxidised surface of polycrystalline zinc; the latter is an important material for atmospheric corrosion control. New light is shed onto the phenomenon of atmospheric corrosion through the application of two in situ surface spectroscopies, namely near ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) and vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy (VSFS). Combining evidence emerging from both spectroscopies, we conclude that water does not simply grow atop a sharply terminated zinc substrate, as often proposed, but accumulates through capillary condensation in the ubiquitous layer of adventitious carbon covering the surface.
Speaker
Dr Rob Lindsay
Organisation: University of Manchester
Biography: Rob is a Reader in the Department of Materials at the University of Manchester. His research is concerned with mechanistic understanding of interface properties underpinning corrosion, and other technologically important phenomena. He employs a range of experimental approaches, including state of the art surface probes, e.g. surface X-ray diffraction and vibrational sum frequency spectroscopy.
Travel and Contact Information
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3.306
Alan Turing Building
Manchester
