The surface structure of Rh oxide

The surface and interface structure of the RhO2 ultra-thin film grown on Rh(100) has been investigated by means of x-ray photoelectron diffraction. Analysis of  2D angular distribution intensities of the O1s and Rh3d5/2 chemically shifted core levels allowed us to reveal a rippled buckling of the metal surface. The link between the local atomic rearrangement and the overall geometric and electronic properties of the oxide was discussed on the basis of a comparison with the corresponding RhO2 rutile structure. 
R. R. Zhan et al., J. Chem. Phys. 133, 214701 (2010)

Ultra-thin oxide films have recently attracted great interest. Consistent research efforts are focused on the characterization of their morphological and electronic properties, which are extensively studied in order to establish a link with their chemical reactivity trends.
In particular, the peculiar properties of transition metal (TM) oxide films can be exploited for tailoring more efficient and cheap catalysts. Indeed, it is well known that, under heterogeneous catalytic oxidation reaction conditions, new oxide phases may be stabilized on TM surfaces, thus significantly modifying the reactivity of the active catalyst.
By using XPD we measured one- and two-dimensional angular scans of the O1s and Rh3d5/2 core level shifted components which were compared to the corresponding multiple-scattering simulations of the modulation amplitudes, yielding a quantitative structural evaluation. We found a relaxation of both the in-plane and out-of-plane coordinates, yielding significant improvement of the reliability factor. In advance, we present novel insights into the structural details of the oxide film on the basis of a thorough parallelism with the bulk RhO2 rutile phase.

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The Rh oxide ultrathin film on Rh(100): an x-ray photoelectron diffraction study;
Rong Rong Zhan, Erik Vesselli, Alessandro Baraldi, Silvano Lizzit, and Giovanni Comelli
J. Chem. Phys. 133, 214701 (2010)
Last Updated on Monday, 21 December 2020 11:53