An attempt to correlate surface physics with chemical properties: molecular beam and Kelvin probe investigations of CeZrO thin films.

What is the correlation between physical properties of the surfaces (such as surface potential, electronic nature of the surface), and chemical and catalysis properties (such as chemisorption, sticking probability of surface)? An attempt has been made to explore any correlation that might exist between the physical and chemical properties of thin film surfaces. Kelvin probe microscopy (KPM) and the molecular beam (MB) methods were employed to carry out the surface potential, and oxygen adsorption and oxygen storage capacity (OSC) measurements on CeZrO thin films. A sol-gel synthesis procedure and spin-coating deposition method have been applied to make continuous nanocrystalline CeZrO (x = 0-1) (CZ) thin films with uniform thickness (35-50 nm); however, surface roughness and porosity inherently changes with CZ composition.