STM studies of surface complexes and molecular compounds in physisorbed monolayers adsorbed at the solid/solution Interface

从液体中吸附到固体表面的分子层是许多学术和工业问题的核心特征，包括冰淇淋制造、润滑、洗涤剂、胶体稳定性、催化、纳米技术和光伏应用。然而，尽管很重要，关于这些分子薄层的结构、组成和相行为的信息却很少，因为它们夹在两个体相之间，无法进行实验。数据的缺乏也导致工业环境下的预测能力非常差。吸附混合物的使用目前是基于试验和错误，并没有优化。我们的团队拥有丰富的经验，使用各种各样的新技术来表征这些吸附层。然而，一些系统不能用我们现有的技术来研究，需要新的方法。在这个简短的项目中，我们的目标是开发使用STM（扫描隧道显微镜）来研究从液体到固体表面吸附的单层结构的专业知识。这种实验方法将使我们能够扩展我们的研究，特别是对吸附混合物的研究，它比纯材料表现出更强的性能，这将促进对从洗涤剂和润滑到采油和胶体稳定性等一系列重要现象的理解。这个前期项目的总费用不到15k。

Molecular layers adsorbed on solid surfaces from liquids are the central feature of many academic and industrial problems including icecream manufacture, lubrication, detergency, colloidal stability, catalysis, nanotechnology and photovoltaic applications. However, although important, there is very little information about the structure, composition and phase behaviour of these molecularly thin layers because they are sandwiched between two bulk phases and are inaccessible to experiment. This lack of data has also led to very poor predictive capabilities in industrial contexts. The use of adsorbed mixtures is presently based on trial and error and poorly optimised. Our group has extensive experience using a wide variety of novel techniques to characterise these adsorbed layers. However, some systems cannot be studied with our existing battery of techniques and new approaches are required. In this short project we aim to develop expertise in using STM (Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy) to study the structures of monolayers adsorbed from liquids to solid surfaces, in our group in Cambridge. This experimental approach will enable us to extend our investigations, particularly to the study of adsorbed mixtures which show much enhanced properties over pure materials which will advance the understanding of a wide range of important phenomena from detergency and lubrication to oil recovery and colloidal stability. The total cost of this preliminary project is less than 15k.