scholarly journals Combined IR and XPS characterization of organic refractory residues obtained by ion irradiation of simple icy mixtures

2018 ◽  
Vol 620 ◽  
pp. A123 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Accolla ◽  
G. Pellegrino ◽  
G. A. Baratta ◽  
G. G. Condorelli ◽  
G. Fedoseev ◽  
...  

Context. Multi-year laboratory experiments have demonstrated that frozen icy mixtures containing simple organic and inorganic molecules (such as H2O, N2, CH4, CO, CO2, C2H6, etc.), if exposed to a flux of energetic ions or UV photons, give rise to new more complex molecules at low temperatures (10–50 K). A fraction of the new synthesized molecules is volatile while the remaining fraction is refractory and therefore it is preserved after the warm-up of the substrate to room temperature. Moreover, a part of the refractory material is formed during the annealing to room temperature, when molecules and radicals into the processed ice become mobile and react to form non-volatile molecules. By means of similar mechanisms, complex organic materials may be formed on the icy surfaces of some objects in the outer solar system, such as trans-Neptunian objects, comets and some satellites of the giant planets: in fact the interaction with solar wind and solar flares ions, solar photons and galactic cosmic rays could produce more refractory materials, analogous to those produced in the laboratory. In some cases, the materials thus synthesized may contain functional groups considered relevant to the pre-biotic chemistry in the hypothesis that interplanetary dust particles, comets and meteoroids contributed to seed the early Earth with the building blocks of life. Aims. The aim of this work is to investigate the chemical similarities and differences between some organic residues left over after ion bombardment (200 keV H+) of different ice mixtures followed by subsequent warm up under vacuum to room temperature. Methods. Seven organic residues have been prepared in our laboratory following a procedure involving the proton irradiation of seven different icy mixtures and their warm-up to room temperature. All the organic samples were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy with measurements performed in situ, in the ultra-high vacuum condition preventing any sample degradation. Three of them were selected to be characterized by XPS spectroscopy as well. Results. Among the organic residues presented in this paper, only those containing nitrogen and carbon exhibit the multi-component band centred at 2200 cm−1. This multi-component band presents interest from the astrobiological point of view due to its attribution to nitriles (–C≡N) and isonitriles (–N≡C). Our results demonstrate that this band is present in the IR spectra of organic nitrogen residues regardless the use of oxygen-bearing species in the icy mixture. This finding is of interest since the 2200 cm−1 band has been observed in some extraterrestrial samples (micro-meteorites) collected in the Antarctica.

Author(s):  
Pamela F. Lloyd ◽  
Scott D. Walck

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is a novel technique for the deposition of tribological thin films. MoS2 is the archetypical solid lubricant material for aerospace applications. It provides a low coefficient of friction from cryogenic temperatures to about 350°C and can be used in ultra high vacuum environments. The TEM is ideally suited for studying the microstructural and tribo-chemical changes that occur during wear. The normal cross sectional TEM sample preparation method does not work well because the material’s lubricity causes the sandwich to separate. Walck et al. deposited MoS2 through a mesh mask which gave suitable results for as-deposited films, but the discontinuous nature of the film is unsuitable for wear-testing. To investigate wear-tested, room temperature (RT) PLD MoS2 films, the sample preparation technique of Heuer and Howitt was adapted.Two 300 run thick films were deposited on single crystal NaCl substrates. One was wear-tested on a ball-on-disk tribometer using a 30 gm load at 150 rpm for one minute, and subsequently coated with a heavy layer of evaporated gold.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Tingting Xiao ◽  
Qi Yang ◽  
Jian Yu ◽  
Zhengwei Xiong ◽  
Weidong Wu

FePt nanoparticles (NPs) were embedded into a single-crystal MgO host by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). It was found that its phase, microstructures and physical properties were strongly dependent on annealing conditions. Annealing induced a remarkable morphology variation in order to decrease its total free energy. H2/Ar (95% Ar + 5% H2) significantly improved the L10 ordering of FePt NPs, making magnetic coercivity reach 37 KOe at room temperature. However, the samples annealing at H2/Ar, O2, and vacuum all showed the presence of iron oxide even with the coverage of MgO. MgO matrix could restrain the particles’ coalescence effectively but can hardly avoid the oxidation of Fe since it is extremely sensitive to oxygen under the high-temperature annealing process. This study demonstrated that it is essential to anneal FePt in a high-purity reducing or ultra-high vacuum atmosphere in order to eliminate the influence of oxygen.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Carrascosa ◽  
Cristóbal González Díaz ◽  
Guillermo M. Muñoz Caro ◽  
Pedro C. Gómez ◽  
María Luz Sanz

<p>Hexamethylentetramine has drawn a lot of attention due to its potential to produce prebiotic species. This work aims to gain a better understanding in the chemical processes concerning methylamine under astrophysically relevant conditions. In particular, this work deeps into the formation of N-heterocycles in interstellar ice analogs exposed to UV radiation, which may lead to the formation of prebiotic species.</p> <p>Experimental simulations of interstellar ice analogs were carried out in ISAC. ISAC is an ultra-high vacuum chamber equipped with a cryostat, where gas and vapour species are frozen forming ice samples. Infrared and ultraviolet spectroscopy were used to monitor the solid phase, and quadrupole mass spectrometry served to measure the composition of the gas phase. The variety of species detected after UV irradiation of ices containing  methylamine revealed the presence of 12 species which have been already detected in the ISM, being 4 of them typically classified as complex organic molecules: formamide (HCONH<sub>2</sub>), methyl cyanide (CH<sub>3</sub>CN), CH<sub>3</sub>NH and CH<sub>3</sub>CHNH. Warming up of the irradiated CH<sub>3</sub>NH<sub>2</sub>-bearing ice samples lead to the formation of trimethylentriamine (TMT), a N-heterocycle precursor of HMT, and the subsequent synthesis of HMT at temperatures above 230 K.</p>


1991 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. V. Barrera ◽  
S. M. Heald

ABSTRACTSurface extended x-ray absorption fine structure (SEXAFS) was used to investigate the interfacial conditions of Al/Cu and Al/Ni shallow buried interfaces. Previous studies using glancing angle extended x-ray absorption fine structure, x-ray reflectivity, photoemission, and SEXAFS produced conflicting results as to whether or not the interfaces between Al and Cu and Al and Ni were reacted upon room temperature deposition. In this study polycrystalline bilayers of Al/Cu and Al/Ni and trilayers of Al/Cu/Al and Al/Ni/Al were deposited on tantalum foil at room temperature in ultra high vacuum and analyzed to evaluate the reactivity of these systems on a nanometer scale. It became overwhelming apparent that the interfacial phase reactions were a function of the vacuum conditions. Samples deposited with the optimum vacuum conditions showed reaction products upon deposition at room temperature which were characterized by comparisons to standards and by least squares fitting to be CuAl2 and NiAl3 respectively. The results of this study showed that the reacted zone thicknesses were readily dependent on the deposition parameters. For both Al on Cu and Al on Ni as well as the metal on Al conditions 10A reaction zones were observed. These reaction zones were smaller than that observed for bilayers of Al on Cu (30Å) and Al on Ni (60Å) where deposition rates were much higher and samples were much thicker. The reaction species are evident by SEXAFS, where the previous photoemission studies only indicated that changes had occurred. Improved vacuum conditions as compared to the earlier experiments is primarily the reason reactions on deposition were seen in this study as compared to the earlier SEXAFS studies.


1990 ◽  
Vol 181 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. L. Meissner ◽  
J. C. Bravman ◽  
T. Kendelewicz ◽  
K. Miyano ◽  
W. E. Spicer ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe formation of Pd-Ge layers was studied as a function of deposition and annealing using synchrotron Ultraviolet Photoemission Spectroscopy (UPS). Pd depositions ranging in thickness from 0.5 monolayers (ML) to 44 ML were examined in-situ on Ge (111) cleaved in ultra-high vacuum. The primary reaction components appear to be Pd2Ge and PdGe. Comparison of bulk and surface sensitive Ge 3d core levels for even the highest coverages indicates that Ge segregates to the surface at room temperature. Such low temperature segregation suggests that Ge can diffuse via a rapid diffusion mechanism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 465-469
Author(s):  
Ryohei NEMOTO ◽  
Peter KRÜGER ◽  
Takuya HOSOKAI ◽  
Masaki HORIE ◽  
Satoshi KERA ◽  
...  

2006 ◽  
Vol 13 (02n03) ◽  
pp. 241-249
Author(s):  
SUNIL SINGH KUSHVAHA ◽  
ZHIJUN YAN ◽  
MAO-JIE XU ◽  
WENDE XIAO ◽  
XUE-SEN WANG

Germanium was deposited onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) with and without antimony in ultra-high vacuum. The surface morphology was analyzed using in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at room temperature (RT). The film grows exclusively in 3D island mode and was affected significantly by substrate defects. At initial stage, nucleation of cluster occurred at step edges and defect sites. Later, we found various types of Ge nanostructures on HOPG in different deposition conditions and stages, including cluster chains, cluster islands, nanowires, and double layer ramified islands at RT. Compact Ge islands were observed when depositing at a substrate temperature of 450 K or after an annealing at 600 K following RT deposition. In addition, the pre-deposited Sb on graphite enhances the sticking probability and suppresses the surface diffusion of Ge atoms, resulting in a significant increase in Ge cluster island density on HOPG terraces.


1996 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 22-23
Author(s):  
J. M. Claude ◽  
J. F. Thiot ◽  
V. Oderno ◽  
C. Dufour

The Rare-Earth Laves phases RE-Fe2 (RE represent the Rare-Earth) show large magnetostrictive properties, especially at room temperature. These materials are well characterized when in bulk form, but they have rarely been studied as thin films and one can expect some important effects due to epitaxial growth.A few single crystal layers of RE-Fe2 have been studied (YFe2, TbFe2, DyFe2, ErFe2: and Dy0.7Tb0.3Fe2 known as Terfenol-D). The thickness of these different layers are between 5 and 20 nm and with [110] as a growth direction have been epitaxied. They have been deposited with a Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) in an ultra high vacuum chamber. A [1120] sapphire substrate is recovered by a [110] niobium buffer. The RE and the iron are then co-deposited on the substrate which is maintained at 500°C. Lastly, an Yttrium layer is deposited on the Rare Earth material at a temperature close to ambient.


Author(s):  
Kunal S. Mali ◽  
Steven De Feyter

Self-assembled physisorbed monolayers consist of regular two-dimensional arrays of molecules. Two-dimensional self-assembly of organic and metal–organic building blocks is a widely used strategy for nanoscale functionalization of surfaces. These supramolecular nanostructures are typically sustained by weak non-covalent forces such as van der Waals, electrostatic, metal–ligand, dipole–dipole and hydrogen bonding interactions. A wide variety of structurally very diverse monolayers have been fabricated under ambient conditions at the liquid–solid and air–solid interface or under ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) conditions at the UHV–solid interface. The outcome of the molecular self-assembly process depends on a variety of factors such as the nature of functional groups present on assembling molecules, the type of solvent, the temperature at which the molecules assemble and the concentration of the building blocks. The objective of this review is to provide a brief account of the progress in understanding various parameters affecting two-dimensional molecular self-assembly through illustration of some key examples from contemporary literature.


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