Local electronic structure of metal particles on metal oxide surfaces: Ni on alumina
- 1 January 1996
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in Faraday Discussions
- Vol. 105, 247-261
- https://doi.org/10.1039/fd9960500247
Abstract
Ni supported on thin alumina films epitaxially grown on the Re(0001) surface has been studied using scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS). Ni, deposited at 300 K onto the Al2O3(111)/Re(0001) surface, forms hemispherical particles with a very narrow size distribution. The transition from layer-by-layer growth to three-dimensional cluster formation has been found to occur at an Ni coverage as low as 0.03 monolayers (ML), indicating a Volmer–Weber growth mode for Ni on Al2O3. Upon heating to 900 K, the Ni layer in contact with the Al2O3 surface reacts with Al2O3 and becomes indistinguishable from the substrate via STM, while Ni in the second and subsequent layers agglomerates. STS was used to study the local electronic structure and to identify the features observed in the STM topographic images.Keywords
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