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Sulfur segregation to the metal oxide interface during the early stages in the oxidation of iron
Author(s) -
Jennings Wayne D.,
Chottiner Gary S.,
Michal Gary M.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
surface and interface analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 90
eISSN - 1096-9918
pISSN - 0142-2421
DOI - 10.1002/sia.740110618
Subject(s) - sulfur , auger electron spectroscopy , oxide , metal , chemistry , torr , oxygen , scanning electron microscope , auger , inorganic chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , materials science , metallurgy , environmental chemistry , composite material , physics , organic chemistry , nuclear physics , thermodynamics , atomic physics
Iron (110) single crystals have been studied during the early stages of their oxidation at 800°C at an oxygen flux equivalent to a pressure of 2 × 10 −5 Torr. Depth profiles using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) determined that if sulfur was present on the metal surface before the oxidation then sulfur was present at the internal metal/oxide interface after a 20 minute oxidation. Oxidation of a clean surface resulted in very little sulfur at the internal metal/oxide interface after the same oxidation exposure even though sufficient time was available for sulfur to accumulate at that interface. The interpretation of the AES data was complicated by the non‐uniformity of the oxide growth. The oxide morphology was found to depend on the amount of sulfur on the free surface just prior to oxidation. A model for this growth was developed that was consistant with both the AES depth profiles and scanning electron microsopy (SEM) observations of the oxide surface morphology.