Surface physicochemical properties are sensitive to preparation techniques, including physical and chemical treatments. Thus, surface treatments could induce significant changes in the surface modification of several materials. From its earliest days, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was widely used as a powerful tool for understanding the nature of many different types of surfaces. Over ...

To establish a quantitative, corroborative understanding of observed correlations between immobilized probe DNA density on microarray surfaces and target hybridization efficiency in biological samples, we have characterized amine-terminated, single-stranded DNA probes attached to amine-reactive commercial microarray slides and complementary DNA target hybridization using fluorescence imaging, X...

CdS quantum dots were grown on mesoporous TiO2 films by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction processes in order to obtain CdS particles of various sizes. AFM analysis shows that the growth of the CdS particles is a two-step process. The first step is the formation of new crystallites at each deposition cycle. In the next step the pre-deposited crystallites grow to form larger aggregat...

OBJECTIVES It is important to characterize the surface of dental amalgam in order to understand the process of mercury release from amalgam restorations in the oral cavity. The mercury evaporation occurs not only from the newly made restoration but also from the set material. METHODS The surfaces of four different types of amalgams, which had been well set, were analyzed with X-ray photoelect...

The surface structural characteristics and electronic behavior of three platinum nanoparticle (NP) samples prepared with tertiary amine (Pt-TA), primary amine (Pt-PA), and thiol (Pt-SR) molecules were studied using Pt 4f, 5d, and S 2p x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Pt L(3)-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), and theoretical projected local density of states (l-DOS) calculations. ...

Using a combination of TEM and XPS, we made an analysis of the complex high-temperature annealing effect on ultrathin titanium deuteride (TiD(y)) films evaporated on a Si(100) substrate and covered by an ultrathin palladium layer. Both the preparation and annealing of the TiD(y)/Pd bi-layer films were performed in situ under UHV conditions. It was found that the surface and bulk morphology of t...

Explanation-based learning (EBL ) is a very powerful method for category formation. Since EBL algorithms depend on having good explanations, it is crucial to have effective ways to build explanations, especially in complex real-world situations where complete causal information is not available. When people encounter new situations, they often explain them by remembering old explanations, and a...

We report a new method to probe the solid-liquid interface through the use of a thin liquid layer on a solid surface. An ambient pressure XPS (AP-XPS) endstation that is capable of detecting high kinetic energy photoelectrons (7 keV) at a pressure up to 110 Torr has been constructed and commissioned. Additionally, we have deployed a "dip &pull" method to create a stable nanometers-thick aqueous...

The step towards the fabrication of nanodevices with improved performance is of high demand; therefore in this study oxygen plasma treated ZnO nanorods based piezoelectric nanogenerator is developed on the single layer graphene coated PET flexible polymer substrate. ZnO nanorods on the single layer graphene are grown by hydrothermal growth method and the structural study is carried out by using...

The influence of premetallization surface preparation on the structural, chemical, and electrical properties of Au– nGaN interfaces has been investigated by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy ~XPS!, current-voltage measurement (I-V) and cross-section transmission electron microscopy ~TEM!. XPS analysis showed that the three GaN substrate treatments investigated i.e., ex situ hydrofluoric acid etc...