SURFACE NANOSCIENCE Prof. Lorenzo S. Caputi Surface Nanoscience Group Department of Physics, University of Calabria
Ultra-high vacuum equipments UHV Laboratory Materials Laboratory
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)
Low Energy Electron Diffraction Nanoscienza di Superficie - UHV Low Energy Electron Diffraction X/ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Auger Electron Spectroscopy
Main Electron Spectroscopies AES, XPS -> surface composition UPS -> electronic structure LEED -> long range surface order EELS, HREELS -> collective electronic properties (plasmons), vibrational properties (phonons, molecular vibrational modes)
Main Scientific Interests Surface properties of materials Catalysts Oxides Synthesis and study of nanomaterials Carbon nanotubes Epitaxial Graphene (bottom-up) Graphene oxide (top-down)
Why Graphene?
CARBON GRAPHITE DIAMOND 2004: GRAPHENE Physics Nobel Price in 2010 1985: fullerens Chemistry Nobel Prize in 1996 1991: Carbon Nanotubes
GRAPHENE 2010: around 3000 papers around 400 patents
Graphene: basic constituent of fullerens, nanotubes and graphite.
Graphene: tridimensional band structure Dirac cones Graphene: tridimensional band structure
Linearity of the dispersion curve at Dirac points Electrons behave as Dirac fermions without mass At low energies, electrons in graphene have a Fermi-Dirac speed of about c/300
Peculiarities of graphene The thinnest material. Highest surface/mass ratio (2600 m2/g). Strongest material (Young modulus 1.0 TPa). Highest current density at room temperature (about 103 times with respect to copper). Highest thermal conductivity (5.3x103 WmK-1). Impermeable to gases. Highest electron mean free path at room temperature (300-500 nm). Highly transparent (absorbs about 2% in the visible).
Graphene production bottom-up top-down
Graphite oxidation in collaboration with ITM-CNR
Graphite oxidation in collaboration with ITM-CNR
Electron Spectroscopy applied to Graphene Oxide 5.8 eV p-plasmon Reflection EELS Intensity (arb. units) 5.0 eV Transmission EELS on single-layer GO Energy loss (eV)
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