Precursor chemistry of h-BN: adsorption, desorption, and decomposition of borazine on Pt(110).

Adsorption, desorption and fragmentation of borazine on Pt(110) are studied by temperature-programmed desorption, ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy, workfunction measurements and density functional theory. Borazine adsorbs in part dissociatively, forming an upright (BNH˙) adsorption complex. Radicals with a N-Pt bond are weakly bound and desorb recombinatively following second-order kinetics.

"Job-Sharing" Storage of Hydrogen in Ru/Li₂O Nanocomposites.

A "job-sharing" hydrogen storage mechanism is proposed and experimentally investigated in Ru/Li2O nanocomposites in which H(+) is accommodated on the Li2O side, while H(-) or e(-) is stored on the side of Ru. Thermal desorption-mass spectroscopy results show that after loading with D2, Ru/Li2O exhibits an extra desorption peak, which is in contrast to Ru nanoparticles or ball-milled Li2O alone, indicating a synergistic hydrogen storage effect due to the presence of both phases. By varying the ratio of the two phases, it is shown that the effect increases monotonically with the area of the heterojunctions, indicating interface related hydrogen storage.

Fluctuations and phase separation in a quasi-one-dimensional system.

Phase transitions in a quasi-one-dimensional surface system on a metal substrate are investigated as a function of temperature. Upon cooling the system shows a loss of long-range order, fluctuations, and a transition into an inhomogeneous ground state due to competition of local adsorbate-adsorbate interactions with an incommensurate charge density wave. This agrees with a general phase diagram for correlated systems and high-temperature superconductors.