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Thin Film
A thin film is a layer of material ranging from fractions of a nanometer ( monolayer) to several micrometers in thickness. The controlled synthesis of materials as thin films (a process referred to as deposition) is a fundamental step in many applications. A familiar example is the household mirror, which typically has a thin metal coating on the back of a sheet of glass to form a reflective interface. The process of silvering was once commonly used to produce mirrors, while more recently the metal layer is deposited using techniques such as sputtering. Advances in thin film deposition techniques during the 20th century have enabled a wide range of technological breakthroughs in areas such as magnetic recording media, electronic semiconductor devices, integrated passive devices, LEDs, optical coatings (such as antireflective coatings), hard coatings on cutting tools, and for both energy generation (e.g. thin-film solar cells) and storage ( thin-film batteries). It is als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nanometer
330px, Different lengths as in respect to the molecular scale. The nanometre (international spelling as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: nm) or nanometer (American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, American spelling) is a units of measurement, unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one billionth (short scale) of a metre () and to 1000 picometres. One nanometre can be expressed in scientific notation as , and as metres. History The nanometre was formerly known as the millimicrometre – or, more commonly, the millimicron for short – since it is of a micron (micrometre), and was often denoted by the symbol mμ or (more rarely and confusingly, since it logically should refer to a ''millionth'' of a micron) as μμ. Etymology The name combines the SI prefix ''nano-'' (from the Ancient Greek , ', "dwarf") with the parent unit name ''metre'' (from Greek , ', "unit of measurement"). ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superlattice
A superlattice is a periodic structure of layers of two (or more) materials. Typically, the thickness of one layer is several nanometers. It can also refer to a lower-dimensional structure such as an array of quantum dots or quantum wells. Discovery Superlattices were discovered early in 1925 by Johansson and Linde after the studies on gold-copper and palladium-copper systems through their special X-ray diffraction patterns. Further experimental observations and theoretical modifications on the field were done by Bradley and Jay, Gorsky, Borelius, Dehlinger and Graf, Bragg and Williams and Bethe. Theories were based on the transition of arrangement of atoms in crystal lattices from disordered state to an ordered state. Mechanical properties J.S. Koehler theoretically predicted that by using alternate (nano-)layers of materials with high and low elastic constants, shearing resistance is improved by up to 100 times as the Frank–Read source of dislocations cannot operate in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ostwald Ripening
Ostwald ripening is a phenomenon observed in solid solutions or liquid sols that describes the change of an inhomogeneous structure over time, i.e., small crystals or sol particles dissolve, and redeposit onto larger crystals or sol particles. Dissolution of small crystals or sol particles and the redeposition of the dissolved species on the surfaces of larger crystals or sol particles was first described by Wilhelm Ostwald in 1896. For colloidal systems, Ostwald ripening is also found in water-in-oil emulsions, while flocculation is found in oil-in-water emulsions. Mechanism This thermodynamically-driven spontaneous process occurs because larger particles are more energetically favored than smaller particles. This stems from the fact that molecules on the surface of a particle are energetically less stable than the ones in the interior. Consider a cubic crystal of atoms: all the atoms inside are bonded to 6 neighbours and are quite stable, but atoms on the surface are on ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Diffusion
Surface diffusion is a general process involving the motion of adatoms, molecules, and atomic clusters ( adparticles) at solid material surfaces.Oura, Lifshits, Saranin, Zotov, and Katayama 2003, p. 325 The process can generally be thought of in terms of particles jumping between adjacent adsorption sites on a surface, as in figure 1. Just as in bulk diffusion, this motion is typically a thermally promoted process with rates increasing with increasing temperature. Many systems display diffusion behavior that deviates from the conventional model of nearest-neighbor jumps. Tunneling diffusion is a particularly interesting example of an unconventional mechanism wherein hydrogen has been shown to diffuse on clean metal surfaces via the quantum tunneling effect. Various analytical tools may be used to elucidate surface diffusion mechanisms and rates, the most important of which are field ion microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy.Oura, Lifshits, Saranin, Zotov, and Katayama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adatom
An adatom is an atom that lies on a crystal surface, and can be thought of as the opposite of a surface vacancy. This term is used in surface chemistry and epitaxy, when describing single atoms lying on surfaces and surface roughness. The word is a portmanteau of " adsorbed atom". A single atom, a cluster of atoms, or a molecule or cluster of molecules may all be referred to by the general term "adparticle". This is often a thermodynamically unfavorable state. However, cases such as graphene may provide counter-examples. Adatom growth Adatom is short for adsorbed atom. When the atom arrives at a crystal surface, it is adsorbed by the periodic potential of the crystal, thus becoming an adatom. The minima of this potential form a network of adsorption sites on the surface. There are different types of adsorption sites. Each of these sites corresponds to a different structure of the surface. There are five different types of adsorption sites, which are: on a terrace, where ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Van Der Waals Force
In molecular physics, the van der Waals force is a distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds, these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak and therefore more susceptible to disturbance. The van der Waals force quickly vanishes at longer distances between interacting molecules. Named after Dutch physicist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, the van der Waals force plays a fundamental role in fields as diverse as supramolecular chemistry, structural biology, polymer science, nanotechnology, surface science, and condensed matter physics. It also underlies many properties of organic compounds In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The s ... and molecular solids, including their solubil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemisorption
Chemisorption is a kind of adsorption which involves a chemical reaction between the surface and the adsorbate. New chemical bonds are generated at the adsorbent surface. Examples include macroscopic phenomena that can be very obvious, like corrosion, and subtler effects associated with heterogeneous catalysis, where the catalyst and reactants are in different phases. The strong interaction between the adsorbate and the substrate surface creates new types of electronic bonds. In contrast with chemisorption is physisorption, which leaves the chemical species of the adsorbate and surface intact. It is conventionally accepted that the energetic threshold separating the binding energy of "physisorption" from that of "chemisorption" is about 0.5 eV per adsorbed species. Due to specificity, the nature of chemisorption can greatly differ, depending on the chemical identity and the surface structural properties. The bond between the adsorbate and adsorbent in chemisorption is either ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Physisorption
Physisorption, also called physical adsorption, is a process in which the electronic structure of the atom or molecule is barely perturbed upon adsorption. Overview The fundamental interacting force of physisorption is Van der Waals force. Even though the interaction energy is very weak (~10–100 meV), physisorption plays an important role in nature. For instance, the van der Waals attraction between surfaces and foot-hairs of geckos (see Synthetic setae) provides the remarkable ability to climb up vertical walls. Van der Waals forces originate from the interactions between induced, permanent or transient electric dipoles. In comparison with chemisorption, in which the electronic structure of bonding atoms or molecules is changed and covalent or ionic bonds form, physisorption does not result in changes to the chemical bonding structure. In practice, the categorisation of a particular adsorption as physisorption or chemisorption depends principally on the binding ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Desorption
Desorption is the physical process where a previously adsorbed substance is released from a surface. This happens when a molecule gains enough energy to overcome the activation barrier of the bounding energy that keeps it in the surface. There are a lot of different types of desorption, depending on the mechanism that separates the adsorbate from the substrate; therefore there is no one equation that describes the process. Note that desorption is the opposite of adsorption, which differs from absorption because it refers to substances being stuck to the surface, as opposed to being absorbed into the bulk. Desorption can occur after a reaction between a catalyst and an adsorbed compound; or during stripping or chromatography which are types of separation processes. Desorption mechanisms Depending on the nature of the adsorbent-to-surface bond, there are a multitude of mechanisms for desorption. The surface bond of a sorbant can be cleaved thermally, through chemical react ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sticking Coefficient
Sticking coefficient is the term used in surface physics to describe the ratio of the number of adsorbate atoms (or molecules) that adsorb, or "stick", to a surface to the total number of atoms that impinge upon that surface during the same period of time. Sometimes the symbol Sc is used to denote this coefficient, and its value is between 1 (all impinging atoms stick) and 0 (no atoms stick). The coefficient is a function of surface temperature, surface coverage (θ) and structural details as well as the kinetic energy of the impinging particles. The original formulation was for molecules adsorbing from the gas phase and the equation was later extended to adsorption from the liquid phase by comparison with molecular dynamics simulations. For use in adsorption from liquids the equation is expressed based on solute density (molecules per volume) rather than the pressure. Derivation When arriving at a site of a surface, an adatom has three options. There is a probability ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adsorption
Adsorption is the adhesion of atoms, ions or molecules from a gas, liquid or dissolved solid to a surface. This process creates a film of the ''adsorbate'' on the surface of the ''adsorbent''. This process differs from absorption, in which a fluid (the ''absorbate'') is dissolved by or permeates a liquid or solid (the ''absorbent''). Adsorption is a '' surface phenomenon'', while absorption involves the whole volume of the material, although adsorption does often precede absorption. The term '' sorption'' encompasses both processes, while '' desorption'' is the reverse of it. Like surface tension, adsorption is a consequence of surface energy. In a bulk material, all the bonding requirements (be they ionic, covalent or metallic) of the constituent atoms of the material are fulfilled by other atoms in the material. However, atoms on the surface of the adsorbent are not wholly surrounded by other adsorbent atoms and therefore can attract adsorbates. The exact nature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Surface Diffusion
Surface diffusion is a general process involving the motion of adatoms, molecules, and atomic clusters ( adparticles) at solid material surfaces.Oura, Lifshits, Saranin, Zotov, and Katayama 2003, p. 325 The process can generally be thought of in terms of particles jumping between adjacent adsorption sites on a surface, as in figure 1. Just as in bulk diffusion, this motion is typically a thermally promoted process with rates increasing with increasing temperature. Many systems display diffusion behavior that deviates from the conventional model of nearest-neighbor jumps. Tunneling diffusion is a particularly interesting example of an unconventional mechanism wherein hydrogen has been shown to diffuse on clean metal surfaces via the quantum tunneling effect. Various analytical tools may be used to elucidate surface diffusion mechanisms and rates, the most important of which are field ion microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy.Oura, Lifshits, Saranin, Zotov, and Katayama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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