New paper published in Nature Communications
Why do certain surfaces behave very differently from what theoretical calculations suggest? Scientists long assumed that the aluminum oxide (Al2O3) surface should be highly reactive and capable of splitting water molecules. In experiments, however, this behavior is barely observed.
TACO researchers from subproject P02 have now found an answer that may also help explain the behavior of many other materials: At the atomic scale, the surface looks completely different from what had been assumed, based on theoretical expectations. Instead of a smooth and regularly ordered surface, the outermost atoms are arranged in an irregular way, which dramatically changes the chemical properties of the surface. The scientists published their findings in the article “AFM imaging reveals the unreconstructed α‑Al2O3(0001) surface to be inhomogeneous and rough”, which appeared in the journal Nature Communications.
The full article can be found here.
The article was also featured in a TU Wien press release.
Authors:
Johanna I. Hütner-Reisch, Andrea Conti, David Kugler, Florian Mittendorfer, Michael Schmid, Ulrike Diebold, and Jan Balajka
Subprojects:
P02 – Surface structure and reactivity of multi-component oxides at the atomic scale
