The powerful nature of the secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) technique was explored in order to analyse very thin surface layers that were self-assembled on steel material from acidic solution. These surface layers are adsorbed corrosion inhibitors. The SIMS technique proved useful to characterise the molecular structure and homogeneity of thin surface layers in the nanometre range of specific analytes on the metallic substrate. Using SIMS, the thermal stability of these layers was further investigated and the desorption energy at a certain temperature was determined, where special attention was devoted to the method’s static limit. In order to compare, and for certain cases emphasise, the benefits gained by using SIMS in such surface analysis compared with the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) method, the same samples were also analysed by means of the latter. XPS is usually considered to be the most powerful analytical tool in surface analysis studies, but, as shown herein, it has certain limitations compared to SIMS. Finally, the surface topography was investigated by employing atomic force microscopy (AFM) in order to carry out a comprehensive surface analysis.

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为了分析非常薄的表面层，这些表面层是由酸性溶液自组装在钢铁材料上的，因此探索了二次离子质谱（SIMS）技术的强大功能。这些表面层是吸附的腐蚀抑制剂。事实证明，SIMS技术可用于表征金属基材上特定分析物的纳米范围内的薄表面层的分子结构和均匀性。使用SIMS，进一步研究了这些层的热稳定性，并确定了在一定温度下的解吸能，其中特别注意了该方法的静态极限。为了比较并在某些情况下强调，与X射线光电子能谱（XPS）方法相比，在此类表面分析中使用SIMS可获得的好处，相同的样品也通过后者进行了分析。XPS通常被认为是表面分析研究中最强大的分析工具，但是，如此处所示，与SIMS相比，它具有某些局限性。最后，采用原子力显微镜（AFM）对表面形貌进行了研究，以进行全面的表面分析。

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