The surface hydro-oxidation of LaNiO(3-delta) thin films.

The chemical structure and possible hydro-oxidation of LaNiO(3-delta) films were studied by means of tuneable high-energy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation. It was shown that the hydroxyl-containing phase, located near the film surface, may be attributed to the lanthanum and nickel hydroxide species. The thickness of a hydroxide-enriched layer was estimated from the oxide/hydroxide ratio measured at normal and grazing conditions.

Mediated oxidation of ascorbic acid on a homologous series of ferrocene-terminated self-assembled monolayers.

The kinetics of electrocatalytic oxidation of ascorbate was studied on a series of redox self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of the general formula Fc(CH2)4COO(CH2)nSH as electron-transfer mediators, where Fc is the ferrocenyl group and n = 3, 6, 9, and 11. We show that the rate of electron transfer from ascorbate to the surface-confined Fc+ decreases with increasing n. The rationale for the dependence of the rate of electrocatalytic activity and n, in the presence of ClO4, is obtained from Fourier-transform surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (FT-SERS), cyclic voltammetry, and electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM) data.