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

从液体吸附到固体表面上的分子层是许多学术和工业问题的中心特征，包括冰壶制造、润滑、去污、胶体稳定性、催化、纳米技术和光伏应用。然而，尽管重要，但关于这些分子薄层的结构、组成和相行为的信息很少，因为它们夹在两个体相之间，无法进行实验。这种数据的缺乏也导致了工业环境中的预测能力非常差。吸附混合物的使用目前是基于试验和错误，优化不足。我们的小组有丰富的经验，使用各种各样的新技术来消除这些吸附层。然而，有些系统不能用我们现有的技术进行研究，需要新的方法。在这个简短的项目中，我们的目标是在剑桥的小组中发展使用STM（扫描隧道显微镜）研究从液体吸附到固体表面的单分子层结构的专业知识。这种实验方法将使我们能够扩展我们的调查，特别是吸附的混合物，表现出更强的性能，比纯材料，这将促进广泛的重要现象的理解，从去污力和润滑油回收和胶体稳定性的研究。这个初步项目的总成本不到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.