Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, A-1040 Vienna, Austria.
Chem Soc Rev. 2017 Apr 3;46(7):1772-1784. doi: 10.1039/c7cs00076f.
Metal oxides are abundant in nature and they are some of the most versatile materials for applications ranging from catalysis to novel electronics. The physical and chemical properties of metal oxides are dramatically influenced, and can be judiciously tailored, by defects. Small changes in stoichiometry introduce so-called intrinsic defects, e.g., atomic vacancies and/or interstitials. This review gives an overview of using Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM), in particular Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), to study the changes in the local geometric and electronic structure related to these intrinsic point defects at the surfaces of metal oxides. Three prototypical systems are discussed: titanium dioxide (TiO), iron oxides (FeO), and, as an example for a post-transition-metal oxide, indium oxide (InO). Each of these three materials prefers a different type of surface point defect: oxygen vacancies, cation vacancies, and cation adatoms, respectively. The different modes of STM imaging and the promising capabilities of non-contact Atomic Force Microscopy (nc-AFM) techniques are discussed, as well as the capability of STM to manipulate single point defects.
金属氧化物在自然界中含量丰富，它们是应用范围最广的材料之一，从催化到新型电子学都有涉及。金属氧化物的物理和化学性质受到缺陷的显著影响，并可以进行明智的调整。化学计量比的微小变化会引入所谓的本征缺陷，例如原子空位和/或间隙。本综述概述了使用扫描探针显微镜（SPM），特别是扫描隧道显微镜（STM），来研究与金属氧化物表面的这些本征点缺陷相关的局部几何和电子结构变化。讨论了三个典型的系统：二氧化钛（TiO）、氧化铁（FeO），以及作为后过渡金属氧化物的例子，氧化铟（InO）。这三种材料中的每一种都倾向于不同类型的表面点缺陷：氧空位、阳离子空位和阳离子吸附原子，分别对应。讨论了 STM 成像的不同模式和非接触原子力显微镜（nc-AFM）技术的有前景的能力，以及 STM 操纵单个点缺陷的能力。
