Temperature Dependent Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Kinetics and Thermodynamics at the Solution Solid Interface
2014 Seminar Series
Monday, Oct. 13
Noon, CUE 319
Professor Kerry Hipps joined the faculty at Washington State University in 1979 following his tenure as a National Science Foundation energy-related postdoctoral fellow at The University of Michigan. He has been a professor of Chemistry and Materials Science since 1990. He is the current Chairman of Chemistry 2008-present, and was previously the Chairman for Materials Science Program (2004-2008). He is a Fellow of the ACS, the APS, and the AAAS, and a member of the Washington State Academy of Science.
A brief introduction to scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) will be presented. It will be shown to be the only technique capable of atomic resolution in virtually any environment. The talk will then focus on molecule level studies at the solution-solid interface. The solution-solid interface is of growing importance to technology. While it has always been critical for processes such as catalysis, spin casting, lubrication, wear, and crystallization, new demanding applications are appearing. Until the late 1980’s all molecular scale studies of the solid/solution interface were ex situ — surfaces were exposed to solution, the surface was dried (often put into ultra high vacuum) and then studied. With the advent of STM it became possible to make atomic scale measurements at the solution-solid interface at room temperature. The ability to see molecules ordering and re-ordering on a surface at different temperatures will (does!) provide access to new materials, phases, reaction rates, reaction mechanisms, and the kinetics and thermodynamics of these surface processes.
