Atomic hydrogen on the surface of a metal with high hydrogen solubility is of particular interest for the hydrogenation of carbon dioxide. In a mixture of hydrogen and carbon dioxide, methane was markedly formed on the metal hydride ZrCoHx in the course of the hydrogen desorption and not on the pristine intermetallic. The surface analysis was performed by means of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy and near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, for the in situ analysis. The aim was to elucidate the origin of the catalytic activity of the metal hydride. Since at the initial stage the dissociation of impinging hydrogen molecules is hindered by a high activation barrier of the oxidised surface, the atomic hydrogen flux from the metal hydride is crucial for the reduction of carbon dioxide and surface oxides at interfacial sites.

Corrosion inhibitors are added in low concentrations to corrosive solutions for reducing the corrosion rate of a metallic material. Their mechanism of action is typically the blocking of free metal surface by adsorption, thus slowing down dissolution. This work uses electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to show the cyclic oligosaccharide β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) to inhibit corrosion of zinc in 0.1M chloride with an inhibition efficiency of up to 85%. Only a monomolecular adsorption layer of β-CD is present on the surface of the oxide covered metal, with Raman spectra of the interface proving the adsorption of the intact β-CD. Angular dependent X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ADXPS) and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS) were used to extract a band-like diagram of the β-CD/ZnO interface, showing a large energy level shift at the interface, closely resembling the energy level alignment in an n–p junction. The energy level shift is too large to permit further electron transfer through the layer, inhibiting corrosion. Adsorption hence changes the defect density in the protecting ZnO layer. This mechanism of corrosion inhibition shows that affecting the defect chemistry of passivating films by molecular inhibitors maybe a viable strategy to control corrosion of metals.

One of the bottlenecks in the implementation of graphene as a transparent electrode in modern opto-electronic devices is the need for complicated and damaging transfer processes of high-quality graphene sheets onto the desired target substrates. Here, we study the direct, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) growth of graphene on GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). By replacing the commonly used hydrogen (H2) process gas with nitrogen (N2), we were able to suppress GaN surface decomposition while simultaneously enabling graphene deposition at <800 °C in a single-step growth process. Optimizing the methane (CH4) flow and varying the growth time between 0.5 h and 8 h, the electro-optical properties of the graphene layers could be tuned to sheet resistances as low as ∼1 kΩ/□ with a maximum transparency loss of ∼12%. The resulting high-quality graphene electrodes show an enhanced current spreading effect and an increase of the emission area by a factor of ∼8 in operating LEDs.

The adsorption of CO on Pd(100) was investigated using simultaneous ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) and infrared reflection absorption infrared spectroscopy (IRRAS). The measurements were performed as a function of CO partial pressures from ultrahigh vacuum to 0.5 Torr. Total CO coverages estimated from the complementary APXPS and IRRAS measurements are in good agreement. A signal for atop CO, which is uncommon for Pd(100), was observed in the IRRAS data and was used to identify the C 1s binding energy of this species. Discerning this binding configuration of CO on the Pd(100) surface at elevated pressures has significance for catalytic reactions involving CO, where bridging CO is often the only configuration considered. We also detail the combined APXPS/IRRAS instrumentation and discuss ways to improve these multimodal measurements, which should have wide applicability across many areas of surface and interface science.