XPEEM studies of nanoscale metal oxide phases

Nanostructures can have different properties to those of bulk materials. This can derive from quantum size effects or simply from a difference in structure adopted as the size of a cluster decreases. There are many possible applications of these phenomena; for metal oxide nanostructures these include advanced sensors, catalysts, high-density visual displays, memory storage devices and environmental control. There is a clear need to understand the structure/function relationship of nanostructures in support of these applications. In this project, a new instrument, The Nanoscience Beamline, which is located at the diamond light source will be used to examine some topics related to nanocatalysis. These measurements will also provide a means to train a new scientist in this area. The beamline uses a technique called X-ray photoelectron microscopy (XPEEM), which can examine the chemical state of a surface in an area down to 20 nanometers (one nanometer is a billionth of a meter).