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Scanning tunnelling microscopy of oxidized graphite
Author(s) -
Porte L.,
Richard D.,
Gallezot P.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.1988.tb01415.x
Subject(s) - graphite , scanning tunneling microscope , transmission electron microscopy , materials science , quantum tunnelling , microscopy , phase (matter) , chemical physics , surface (topology) , nanotechnology , crystallography , optics , chemistry , physics , optoelectronics , composite material , geometry , organic chemistry , mathematics
SUMMARY Scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to investigate the surface of a pyrolitic graphite oxidized in liquid phase by NaClO. Two main features of the oxidized HOPG are revealed by STM. First, a large number of steps of different heights have developed on the graphite surface. These steps can be observed by TEM on another kind of graphite, HSAG 12, but this technique cannot give any information on their heights. Another kind of defect on the previously flat surface of HOPG consists in patches where the surface is rough and perturbed. These domains are very difficult to observe by TEM due to a poor contrast. Thus for the study of surface heterogeneities intentionally created on graphite, STM, providing information along three directions, appears to be complementary of TEM which gives only images of project area.