Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 49: Oxide and Insulator Surfaces: Adsorption
O 49.4: Poster
Tuesday, March 21, 2017, 18:30–20:30, P1A
Micron sized dendritic structures due to water ice on oxide surfaces under ambient conditions — •Kivanc Esat1,2, Özgür Birer3, and Oguzhan Gürlü1 — 1Istanbul Technical University, Department of Physics, Turkey — 2ETH Zürich, Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, Switzerland — 3Koç University, Chemistry Department, Turkey
Water is one of the most studied yet the least understood molecule at the fundamental level. Its magnificent characteristics can give rise to unexpected phenomena when adsorbed on surfaces. In our work we studied water adsorption on nanoscale chromium oxide particles those had been growth on glass and silicon oxide surfaces. We found out that dendritic structures can form spontaneously on these surfaces due to ambient water. Our systematic studies of dosing such surfaces with humidified air revealed formation of further fractal structures due to water condensation and evaporation. The growth of these structures was observed under an ambient optical microscope in real time. When these samples were transferred to an atomic force microscope (AFM) dendrites due to water ice could still be observed. AFM data showed that these structures could be as high as several hundredths of nanometers, proving them to be three dimensional. Depending on the density of the oxide particles on glass or silicon oxide surfaces, shapes, coverage areas and thicknesses of the dendrites were observed to differ. An explanation could be brought to their formation by use of Electrostatic Force Microscopy measurements.