Fundamental mechanisms for energy conversion and dissipation on surfaces and at interfaces have been significant issues in the community of surface science. Electronic excitation in exothermic chemical reactions or photon absorption involves the generation of energetic or hot electrons that are not in thermal equilibrium via non-adiabatic electronic excitation. A number of experimental and theoretical

The formation of chiral nanostructures via molecular assembly and reaction on solid surfaces is a ubiquitous surface process due to the symmetry-breaking at 2D surface. Studying chirality during the adsorption, assembly, and reaction of molecules on 2D solid surfaces at molecular level not only sheds deep insights into the enantioselective heterogeneous catalysis, chiral recognition, origin and evolution

The direct epoxidation of propylene to propylene oxide (PO) using molecular oxygen is an attractive alternative to current production methods using chlorohydrin or hydroperoxide-mediated processes, which are environmentally harmful and expensive. Although direct ethylene epoxidation using Ag-based catalysts has been practiced industrially for decades, due to the presence of allylic hydrogen in propylene

Layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are a diverse group of materials whose properties vary from semiconducting to metallic with a variety of many body phenomena, ranging from charge density wave (CDW), superconductivity, to Mott-insulators. Recent interest in topologically protected states revealed also that some TMDs host bulk Dirac- or Wyle-semimetallic states and their corresponding

It was a long-cherished dream for chemists to take a direct look at chemical bonding, a fundamental component of chemistry. This dream was finally accomplished by the state-of-the-art noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) equipped with qPlus force sensors and carbon monoxide (CO) functionalized tips. The resolved interconnectivity between atoms and molecules in NC-AFM frequency shift images is

Among fundamental diatomic molecules, the adsorption of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitric oxide (NO) on metal surfaces has been a subject of intensive research in the surface science community, partly owing to its relevance to heterogeneous catalysis used for environmental control. Compared to the rather well-defined adsorption mechanism of CO, that of NO is less understood because the adsorption results

Infrared (IR) spectroscopy has evolved into a powerful analytical technique to probe molecular and lattice vibrations, low-energy electronic excitations and correlations, and related collective surface plasmon, phonon, or other polaritonic resonances. In combination with scanning probe microscopy, near-field infrared nano-spectroscopy and -imaging techniques have recently emerged as a frontier in imaging

First-principles predictions play an important role in understanding chemistry at the electrochemical interface. Electronic structure calculations are straightforward for vacuum interfaces, but do not easily account for the interfacial fields and solvation that fundamentally change the nature of electrochemical reactions. Prevalent techniques for first-principles prediction of electrochemical processes

The establishment of electronic and opto-electronic products relying on organic semiconductors (OSCs) has been intensely explored over the past few decades due to their great competitiveness in large area, low cost, flexible, wearable and implantable devices. Many of these products already entered our daily lives, such as organic light-emitting diodes-based displays, portable organic solar cells and

Low-dimensional self-organized surface structures, induced by (sub)monolayer metal adsorbates on semiconductor surfaces may give rise not only to a variety of emergent electronic properties, but also to a multitude of specific localized vibronic features. The focus of this review is on the analysis of these novel surface vibration eigenmodes. The application of in situ surface Raman spectroscopy under

The review describes the physical and chemical phenomena occurring between solid ceramics used as reinforcement and liquid metals and alloys used as matrix in the composite coatings. Initially, the properties of typical matrix metals as Ni, Co, Fe and alloys as Ni-based (NiCr, NiAl, NiCrAlY,…) and Co-based (Stellites) alloys in liquid state are described. Then, the phenomena related to the diffusion

A review of directional Auger (DAES) and directional elastic peak electron spectroscopy (DEPES) for investigations of the short range order within a near-surface region, similar to XPD, is presented. The application of these techniques requires nothing more than a retarding field analyser (RFA), commonly applied for the observation of low energy electron diffraction (LEED) patterns and Auger electron

Two-dimensional (2D) crystals have developed into a popular mainstream research topic which is interesting for basic research and many applications. Gas-surface interactions, as reviewed here, are important for catalysis including noble metal-free catalysts, materials science, and surface science as well as environmental and energy technologies. Basic science concerns fundamental differences of 2D

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) monolayers have attracted considerable interest as atomically thin sp2-hybridized sheets that are readily synthesized on various metal supports. They complement the library of two-dimensional materials including graphene and open perspectives for van der Waals heterostructures. In this review, we discuss the surface science of hBN including its growth, the hBN/metal interface

The behavior of water in close proximity to other materials under ambient conditions is of great significance due to its importance in a broad range of daily applications and scientific research. The structure and dynamics of water at an interface or in a nanopore are often significantly different from those of its bulk counterpart. Until recently, experimental access to these interfacial water structures

Determination of surface structures currently requires careful measurement and computationally expensive methods since, unlike bulk crystals, guiding principles for generating surface structural hypotheses are frequently lacking. Herein, we discuss the applicability of Pauling's rules as a set of guidelines for surface structures. The wealth of solved reconstructions on SrTiO3 (100), (110), and (111)

Atomic hydrogen is a highly reactive species of interest because of its role in a wide range of applications and technologies. Knowledge about the interactions of incident H atoms on metal surfaces is important for our understanding of many processes such as those occurring in plasma-enhanced catalysis and nuclear fusion in tokamak reactors. Herein we review some of the numerous experimental surface

Metal-oxide interfaces are of great importance in catalytic applications since each material can provide a distinct functionality that is necessary for efficient catalysis in complex reaction pathways. Moreover, the synergy between two materials can yield properties that exceed the superposition of single sites. While interfaces between metals and metal oxides can play a key role in the reactivity

This paper presents a review of the experimental and theoretical investigations of halogen interaction with metal surfaces. The emphasis was placed on the recent measurements performed with a scanning tunneling microscope in combination with density functional theory calculations. The surface structures formed on metal surface after halogen interaction are classified into three groups: chemisorbed

As a prototypical photocatalyst, TiO2 is a material of scientific and technological interest. In photocatalysis and other applications, TiO2 is often reduced, behaving as an n-type semiconductor with unique physico-chemical properties. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the understanding of the fundamental properties and applications of excess electrons in reduced, undoped TiO2. We discuss

Ceria (CeO2) as a support, additive, and active component for heterogeneous catalysis has been demonstrated to have great catalytic performance, which includes excellent thermal structural stability, catalytic efficiency, and chemoselectivity. Understanding the surface properties of CeO2 and the chemical reactions occurred on the corresponding interfaces is of great importance in the rational design

Chemical interactions which occur at a heterogeneous interface between a gas and substrate are critical in many technological and natural processes. Ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (AP-XPS) is a powerful spectroscopy tool that is inherently surface sensitive, elemental and chemical specific, with the ability to probe sample surfaces in the presence of a gas phase. In this review,

Design of ions for injection water may change the wettability of oil-brine-rock (OBR) system, which has very important applications in enhanced oil recovery. Though ion-tuned wettability has been verified by various experiments, the mechanism is still not clear. In this review paper, we first present a comprehensive summarization of possible wettability alteration mechanisms, including fines migration

In this paper we provide a concise review of present achievements in the study of spin-wave resonance (SWR) in ferromagnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As thin films. The theoretical treatment of the experimental SWR data obtained so far concentrates specifically on the spherical surface pinning (SSP) model, in which the surface spin pinning energy is expressed by configuration angles (the out-of-plane polar

Understanding the physical and chemical processes in which local interactions lead to ordered structures is of particular relevance to the realization of supramolecular architectures on surfaces. While spectacular patterns have been demonstrated on metal surfaces, there have been fewer studies of the spontaneous organization of supramolecular networks on semiconductor surfaces, where the formation

A review is presented that covers the experimental and theoretical literature relating to the preparation, electronic structure and chemical and physical properties of the surfaces of the wurtzite form of GaN. The discussion includes the adsorption of various chemical elements and of inorganic, organometallic and organic species. The focus is on work that contributes to a microscopic, atomistic understanding

During the last decade, interest on the growth and self-assembly of organic molecular species on solid surfaces spread over the scientific community, largely motivated by the promise of cheap, flexible and tunable organic electronic and optoelectronic devices. These efforts lead to important advances in our understanding of the nature and strength of the non-bonding intermolecular interactions that

In this review we survey the contributions that molecular beam experiments have provided to our understanding of the dynamics and kinetics of chemical interactions of gas molecules with solid surfaces. First, we describe the experimental details of the different instrumental setups and approaches available for the study of these systems under the ultrahigh vacuum conditions and with the model planar

Nanostructures of diverse chemical nature are used as biomarkers, therapeutics, catalysts, and structural reinforcements. The decoration with surfactants has a long history and is essential to introduce specific functions. The definition of surfactants in this review is very broad, following its lexical meaning “surface active agents”, and therefore includes traditional alkyl modifiers, biological

Within the last decade powerful methods have been developed to study surfaces using bright low-energy positron beams. These novel analysis tools exploit the unique properties of positron interaction with surfaces, which comprise the absence of exchange interaction, repulsive crystal potential and positron trapping in delocalized surface states at low energies. By applying reflection high-energy positron

This review discusses modern developments in CO2 surface chemistry by focusing on the work published since the original review by H.J. Freund and M.W. Roberts two decades ago (Surface Science Reports 25 (1996) 225–273). It includes relevant fundamentals pertaining to the topics covered in that earlier review, such as conventional metal and metal oxide surfaces and CO2 interactions thereon. While UHV

Titanates are salts of polytitanic acid that can be synthesized as nanostructures in a great variety concerning crystallinity, morphology, size, metal content and surface chemistry. Titanate nanotubes (open-ended hollow cylinders measuring up to 200 nm in length and 15 nm in outer diameter) and nanowires (solid, elongated rectangular blocks with length up to 1500 nm and 30–60 nm diameter) are the most

The fascinating particle size dependence to the physical, photophysical, and chemical properties of gold has motivated thousands of studies focused on exploring the ability of supported gold nanoparticles to catalyze chemical transformations. In particular, titanium dioxide-supported gold (Au/TiO2) nanoparticles may provide the right combination of electronic structure, structural dynamics, and stability

The current status of knowledge regarding the surfaces of the iron oxides, magnetite (Fe3O4), maghemite (γ-Fe2O3), haematite (α-Fe2O3), and wüstite (Fe1−xO) is reviewed. The paper starts with a summary of applications where iron oxide surfaces play a major role, including corrosion, catalysis, spintronics, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs), biomedicine, photoelectrochemical water splitting and groundwater

In the past decade there have been many theoretical and experimental efforts to study the mechanisms of solid state dewetting, that means the spontaneous agglomeration of a thin solid film on a substrate into an assembly of 3D islands. The dewetting studies of solid films on solid substrates have not yet reached the degree of maturity achieved for liquids but there is now enough experimental data to

Catalyst synthesis with precise control over the structure of catalytic active sites at the atomic level is of essential importance for the scientific understanding of reaction mechanisms and for rational design of advanced catalysts with high performance. Such precise control is achievable using atomic layer deposition (ALD). ALD is similar to chemical vapor deposition (CVD), except that the deposition

The accepted image of muscovite mica is that of an inert and atomically smooth surface, easily prepared by cleavage in an ambient atmosphere. Consequently, mica is extensively used a model substrate in many fundamental studies of surface phenomena and as a substrate for AFM imaging of biomolecules. In this review we present evidence from the literature that the above picture is not quite correct. The

Metal–oxide interfaces play a fundamental role in determining the functional properties of artificial layered heterostructures, which are at the root of present and future technological applications. Magnetic exchange and magnetoelectric coupling, spin filtering, metal passivation, catalytic activity of oxide-supported nano-particles are just few examples of physical and chemical processes arising

The current efficiency of various photocatalytic processes is limited by the recombination of photogenerated electron–hole pairs in the photocatalyst as well as the back-reaction of intermediate species. This review concentrates on the use of ferroelectric polarization to mitigate electron–hole recombination and back-reactions and therefore improve photochemical reactivity. Ferroelectric materials