No description available.

No description available.

Abrasive wear occurs when a contact associated with stress between a metal surface and a herd particle (frequently of mineral origin) leads to friction between the two. In a very wide range of industrial applications, abrasive wear is the main reason for component and equipment repair or replacement. In most of these applications, especially those of earth moving, construction and mining equipment, digger teeth are used to improve equipment performance. Digger teeth can be produced in different shapes and sizes (mainly by casting) and a wide range of materials are used. This project is concerned with both a field trial of the wear of digger teeth fixed to the front of a bucket used in a gravel pit, and also a laboratory investigation of abrasive wear mechanisms. It was found that the wear of digger teeth increased with increasing working hours, but the wear rate eventually decreased. The dimensions and shape of the front of the tooth changed and gravel removal became more inefficient. Plastic deformation and phase transformation were observed in the worn surfaces of the teeth. In the laboratory study, many parameters were investigated utilising a pin-on disc technique. Wear rate increases linearly with load and decreases with sliding distance. The effect of attack angle on abrasive wear showed that wear volume increases with increasing attack angle up to a certain value (90°) and then decreases. Corrosion increases the initial wear rate, and the amount of material removed in the wet corrosive test was higher than the corresponding dry test. It was difficult to reproduce the same results from the field trial in the laboratory because of the difference in the conditions in the two cases. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were used to study the worn surfaces, abrasive papers and wear debris. Different abrasive wear mechanisms were observed throughout this investigation. A cutting mechanism associated with spiral debris was observed during short pin-on disc tests and with higher attack angles. A ploughing action associated with plate-like debris was observed during longer tests and at lower attack angles. Fragmentation was observed in brittle materials.

Diversos estudos experimentais e teóricos têm sugerido que a formação de ligas de superfície ou a deposição de monocamadas de metal de transição (TM) tensionadas sobre suportes de TM pode ser considerada como uma via para a produção de novos catalisadores. Assim, um entendimento mais profundo das propriedades energéticas, geométricas e catalíticas dessas superfícies, bem como seus efeitos sobre as propriedades de adsorção de moléculas como água e etanol se tornam muito interessantes e importantes para futuras aplicações. Nesse trabalho relatamos uma extensa investigação de primeiros princípios baseada na teoria funcional da densidade desde os processos de adsorção de adátomos de TM (Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt) sobre as superfícies Cu(111) e Au(111) considerando recobrimentos que variam de 1/9, 2/9 até 1 monocamada (ML), até a adsorção de monômeros das moléculas de água e de etanol sobre diferentes ambientes proporcionados pelas diferentes superfícies estudadas, bem como uma análise das interações de van de Waals (vdW), de grande relevância na descrição desses sistemas. Estudamos aspectos de formação e estabilidade de diferentes superfícies com diferentes recobrimentos de adátomos. Em baixos recobrimentos, apesar dos diferentes raios atômicos dos ádatomos e átomos do substrato, sítios incorporados na camada mais externa do substrato são mais favoráveis energeticamente do que sítios sobre a superfície do mesmo. Nos sistemas TM/Au(111), essa tendência segue até o limite em que todos os átomos do substrato fiquem expostos à região de vácuo, com uma camada adjacente de adátomos; válido também para os sistemas Rh/Cu(111). A adsorção de Pd, Ir e Pt em Cu(111), segue a mesma tendência até recobrimentos de 4/9, 8/9, 6/9 ML, ficando os adátomos expostos à região de vácuo para maiores recobrimentos. Para sistemas TM/Au(111), temos uma deformação expansiva, devido à mistura de adátomos, com raios menores que o Au, na primeira camada do substrato, enquanto para sistemas TM/Cu(111) ela é compressiva, em particular para altos recobrimentos de Pd, Ir, Pt, favorecendo sua adsorção sobre a superfície do substrato. Essas alterações nas propriedades das superfícies deslocam o centro da banda dos estados d ocupados, possibilitando \"ajustá-las\" para determinados adsorbatos. Logo, utilizamos algumas dessas superfícies para avaliar quais os efeitos sobre as propriedades de adsorção das moléculas de água e de etanol. Em todos os sistemas, as moléculas adsorvem ligam através do átomo de oxigênio, O, sobre um sítio de coordenação 1 (on-top). Esse cenário se altera conforme induzimos deformações na superfície, pois a molécula se desloca lateralmente rumo a sítios de maior coordenação; ou adicionamos correções de vdW, aumentando a interação molécula-substrato, e podendo até mesmo rearranjar a molécula sobre a superfície. Para a molécula de água, efeitos geométricos são menos pronunciados, enquanto para o etanol podem alterar drasticamente a conformação da molécula e sua orientação em relação à superfície. Assim como as correções de vdW, as deformações induzidas também afetam energia de adsorção, pois alteram a estrutura eletrônica dos substratos, tal que observamos um aumento linear das energias de adsorção em função do centro da banda dos estados d ocupados dos substratos, ainda que se observem desvios. Finalmente, pudemos contribuir para um melhor entendimento das propriedades de superfícies de metais de transição sob efeitos de deformações expansiva e compressiva, demonstrando a possibilidade de alterar suas propriedades tanto pelos diferentes recobrimentos quanto pelo tipo de deformação induzida. Além disso, comprovamos os efeitos dessas alterações sobre as propriedades de adsorção de moléculas de água e de etanol, incluindo ainda uma análise do comportamento de algumas correções de van der Waals para esses sistemas. / Many experimental and theoretical studies have been suggesting that the superficial alloys formation or a deposition of transition metal (TM) monolayers under strain over transition metal supports (substrates) can be considered as a route to produce new catalysts. Thus, a deeper understading about geometric, energetic and electronic properties of these surfaces, as well as, their effects over the molecules adsorption becomes very important for future applications. We report an extensive first principles investigation based on density functional theory, covering subjects from TM (Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt) adsorption processes on Cu(111) and Au(111) surfaces to different TM coverages (1/9, 2/9 up to 1 monolayer (ML)), up to the adsorption of water and ethanol monomers on different surface environments. Additionally, we will use van derWaals corrections, which are important to the description of these systems. We have studied formation and stability features of different surfaces with different adatoms coverage. At low coverages, despite of different atomic radius of adatoms and host atoms, incorporated sites in the topmost substrate layer are more energetically favorable than sites on the surface (overlayer). For TM/Au(111) systems, this trend follows adatom by adatom up to the limit where every atom from the substrate get exposed to the vacuum region, and has an underlying layer comprised of adatoms; it holds also for Rh/Cu(111) systems. The adsorption of Pd, Ir and Pt on Cu(111) follows the same trend until 4/9, 8/9, 6/9 ML coverages, and the adatoms get exposed to the vacuum region for higher coverages. For TM/Au(111) systems, we have an expansive strain, because of the mixture of adatoms, whose atomic radii are smaller than Au, in the topmost substrate layer, while for TM/Cu(111) systems it is compressive, in particular, for higher Pd, Ir, Pt coverages, which favors their adsorption on the overlayer. Such changes in the surface properties shift the center of gravity of the occupied d-band states, which gives the possibility to tune them to specific adsorbates. Thus, we have employed some of those surfaces to evaluate what are the effects over the adsorption properties of water and ethanol molecules. For all systems, the molecules adsorb by the oxygen atom, O, on an one-fold site (on-top). This scenario changes as we induce deformations over the surface, because the molecule has a lateral shift towards to higher coordinated sites; or when we add vdW corrections, increasing the molecule-substrate interaction, it being possible even to rearrange the molecule on the surface. For water molecule, geometric effects are less pronounced, while for ethanol they can drastically change the molecule conformation and orientation in relation to the surface. As the vdW corrections, the induced strain can also affect the adsorption energy, since they change the substrate electronic structure, and we observed a linear adsorption energy increasing against the center of gravity of the occupied d-band states of substrates, even there are some deviations. Finally, we could contribute to a better understanding about the transition metal surfaces properties over expansive and compressive strain effects, showing the possibility to change their properties either by different adatoms coverage or by induced strain. Furthermore, we prove these effects over the properties of water and ethanol molecules adsorption, also including an analysis to the van der Waals behavior for these systems.

Diversos estudos experimentais e teóricos têm sugerido que a formação de ligas de superfície ou a deposição de monocamadas de metal de transição (TM) tensionadas sobre suportes de TM pode ser considerada como uma via para a produção de novos catalisadores. Assim, um entendimento mais profundo das propriedades energéticas, geométricas e catalíticas dessas superfícies, bem como seus efeitos sobre as propriedades de adsorção de moléculas como água e etanol se tornam muito interessantes e importantes para futuras aplicações. Nesse trabalho relatamos uma extensa investigação de primeiros princípios baseada na teoria funcional da densidade desde os processos de adsorção de adátomos de TM (Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt) sobre as superfícies Cu(111) e Au(111) considerando recobrimentos que variam de 1/9, 2/9 até 1 monocamada (ML), até a adsorção de monômeros das moléculas de água e de etanol sobre diferentes ambientes proporcionados pelas diferentes superfícies estudadas, bem como uma análise das interações de van de Waals (vdW), de grande relevância na descrição desses sistemas. Estudamos aspectos de formação e estabilidade de diferentes superfícies com diferentes recobrimentos de adátomos. Em baixos recobrimentos, apesar dos diferentes raios atômicos dos ádatomos e átomos do substrato, sítios incorporados na camada mais externa do substrato são mais favoráveis energeticamente do que sítios sobre a superfície do mesmo. Nos sistemas TM/Au(111), essa tendência segue até o limite em que todos os átomos do substrato fiquem expostos à região de vácuo, com uma camada adjacente de adátomos; válido também para os sistemas Rh/Cu(111). A adsorção de Pd, Ir e Pt em Cu(111), segue a mesma tendência até recobrimentos de 4/9, 8/9, 6/9 ML, ficando os adátomos expostos à região de vácuo para maiores recobrimentos. Para sistemas TM/Au(111), temos uma deformação expansiva, devido à mistura de adátomos, com raios menores que o Au, na primeira camada do substrato, enquanto para sistemas TM/Cu(111) ela é compressiva, em particular para altos recobrimentos de Pd, Ir, Pt, favorecendo sua adsorção sobre a superfície do substrato. Essas alterações nas propriedades das superfícies deslocam o centro da banda dos estados d ocupados, possibilitando \"ajustá-las\" para determinados adsorbatos. Logo, utilizamos algumas dessas superfícies para avaliar quais os efeitos sobre as propriedades de adsorção das moléculas de água e de etanol. Em todos os sistemas, as moléculas adsorvem ligam através do átomo de oxigênio, O, sobre um sítio de coordenação 1 (on-top). Esse cenário se altera conforme induzimos deformações na superfície, pois a molécula se desloca lateralmente rumo a sítios de maior coordenação; ou adicionamos correções de vdW, aumentando a interação molécula-substrato, e podendo até mesmo rearranjar a molécula sobre a superfície. Para a molécula de água, efeitos geométricos são menos pronunciados, enquanto para o etanol podem alterar drasticamente a conformação da molécula e sua orientação em relação à superfície. Assim como as correções de vdW, as deformações induzidas também afetam energia de adsorção, pois alteram a estrutura eletrônica dos substratos, tal que observamos um aumento linear das energias de adsorção em função do centro da banda dos estados d ocupados dos substratos, ainda que se observem desvios. Finalmente, pudemos contribuir para um melhor entendimento das propriedades de superfícies de metais de transição sob efeitos de deformações expansiva e compressiva, demonstrando a possibilidade de alterar suas propriedades tanto pelos diferentes recobrimentos quanto pelo tipo de deformação induzida. Além disso, comprovamos os efeitos dessas alterações sobre as propriedades de adsorção de moléculas de água e de etanol, incluindo ainda uma análise do comportamento de algumas correções de van der Waals para esses sistemas. / Many experimental and theoretical studies have been suggesting that the superficial alloys formation or a deposition of transition metal (TM) monolayers under strain over transition metal supports (substrates) can be considered as a route to produce new catalysts. Thus, a deeper understading about geometric, energetic and electronic properties of these surfaces, as well as, their effects over the molecules adsorption becomes very important for future applications. We report an extensive first principles investigation based on density functional theory, covering subjects from TM (Rh, Pd, Ir, Pt) adsorption processes on Cu(111) and Au(111) surfaces to different TM coverages (1/9, 2/9 up to 1 monolayer (ML)), up to the adsorption of water and ethanol monomers on different surface environments. Additionally, we will use van derWaals corrections, which are important to the description of these systems. We have studied formation and stability features of different surfaces with different adatoms coverage. At low coverages, despite of different atomic radius of adatoms and host atoms, incorporated sites in the topmost substrate layer are more energetically favorable than sites on the surface (overlayer). For TM/Au(111) systems, this trend follows adatom by adatom up to the limit where every atom from the substrate get exposed to the vacuum region, and has an underlying layer comprised of adatoms; it holds also for Rh/Cu(111) systems. The adsorption of Pd, Ir and Pt on Cu(111) follows the same trend until 4/9, 8/9, 6/9 ML coverages, and the adatoms get exposed to the vacuum region for higher coverages. For TM/Au(111) systems, we have an expansive strain, because of the mixture of adatoms, whose atomic radii are smaller than Au, in the topmost substrate layer, while for TM/Cu(111) systems it is compressive, in particular, for higher Pd, Ir, Pt coverages, which favors their adsorption on the overlayer. Such changes in the surface properties shift the center of gravity of the occupied d-band states, which gives the possibility to tune them to specific adsorbates. Thus, we have employed some of those surfaces to evaluate what are the effects over the adsorption properties of water and ethanol molecules. For all systems, the molecules adsorb by the oxygen atom, O, on an one-fold site (on-top). This scenario changes as we induce deformations over the surface, because the molecule has a lateral shift towards to higher coordinated sites; or when we add vdW corrections, increasing the molecule-substrate interaction, it being possible even to rearrange the molecule on the surface. For water molecule, geometric effects are less pronounced, while for ethanol they can drastically change the molecule conformation and orientation in relation to the surface. As the vdW corrections, the induced strain can also affect the adsorption energy, since they change the substrate electronic structure, and we observed a linear adsorption energy increasing against the center of gravity of the occupied d-band states of substrates, even there are some deviations. Finally, we could contribute to a better understanding about the transition metal surfaces properties over expansive and compressive strain effects, showing the possibility to change their properties either by different adatoms coverage or by induced strain. Furthermore, we prove these effects over the properties of water and ethanol molecules adsorption, also including an analysis to the van der Waals behavior for these systems.

No description available.

Sulfur adsorbed on metallic and oxide surfaces, whether originating from gaseous environments or segregating as an impurity to metallic interfaces, is linked to the deterioration of alloy performance. This research dealt with investigations on the interactions between sulfur and iron or iron alloy metallic and oxide surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. Sulfur was either intentionally dosed from a H2S source on an atomically clean metal surface, or segregated out as an impurity from the bulk to the metal surface by annealing at elevated temperatures.

<p>The structure, bonding and chemistry of water and hydroxyl on metal surfaces are presented. Synchrotron based x-ray photoelectron- and x-ray absorption spectroscopy along with density functional theory calculations mainly form the basis of the results. Conditions span the temperature range 35 - 520 K and pressures from ultra-high vacuum (~10 fAtm) to near ambient pressures (~1 mAtm). The results provide, e.g, new insights on the importance of hydrogen bonding for surface chemical kinetics.</p><p>Water adsorbs intact on the Pt(111), Ru(001) and Cu(110) surfaces at low temperatures forming 2-dimensional wetting layers where bonding to the metal (M) mainly occurs via H₂O-M and M-HOH bonds. Observed isotope differences in structure and kinetics for H₂O and D₂O adsorption on Ru(001) are due to qualitatively different surface chemistries. D₂O desorbs intact but H₂O dissociates in kinetic competition with desorption similar to the D₂O/Cu(110) system. The intact water layers are very sensitive to x-ray and electron induced damage.</p><p>The mixed H₂O:OH phase on Ru(001) consists of stripe-like structures 4 to 6 Ru lattice parameters wide where OH decorates the edges of the stripes. On Pt(111), two different long-range ordered mixed H₂O:OH structures are found to be inter-related by geometric distortions originating from the asymmetric H-bond donor-acceptor properties of OH towards H₂O.</p><p>Water adsorption on Cu(110) was studied at near ambient conditions and compared to Cu(111). Whereas Cu(111) remains clean, Cu(110) holds significant amounts of water in a mixed H₂O:OH layer. The difference is explained by the differing activation barriers for water dissociation, leading to the presence of OH groups on Cu(110) which lowers the desorption kinetics of water by orders of magnitude due to the formation of strong H₂O-OH bonds. By lowering the activation barrier for water dissociation on Cu(111) by pre-adsorbing atomic O, generating adsorbed OH, similar results to those on Cu(110) are obtained.</p>

This thesis presents a theoretical and experimental investigation of the interaction of electronically excited Rydberg hydrogen atoms with metal surfaces and the associated charge-transfer process. As a Rydberg atom approaches a metal surface, the energies of the Rydberg states are perturbed by the surface potential generated by the image charges of the Rydberg electron and core. At small atom-surface separations, the Rydberg atom may be ionised by resonant charge transfer of the Rydberg electron to the continuum of delocalised unoccupied metal states, with which the Rydberg electron is degenerate in energy. Typically, this ‘surface ionisation’ can be measured by extracting the remaining positively charged ion-cores with externally applied electric fields. By applying various levels of theory, from classical to fully time-dependent quantum calculations, this thesis explores various experimentally relevant effects on the charge-transfer process, such as the magnitude and direction of the externally applied electric field, the atom collisional velocity, the presence of local surface stray fields and electronically structured surfaces. The theoretical results give insight into the previous experimental work carried out for the xenon atom and hydrogen molecule, and point out some of the fundamental differences from the hydrogen atom system. Experiments involving Rydberg hydrogen atoms incident on an atomically flat gold surface, a rough machined aluminium surface and a single crystal copper (100) surface are presented, providing for the first time the opportunity to make a quantitative comparison of theory and experiments. The ability to control the critical distance at which charge-transfer occurs is demonstrated by using Rydberg states of varying dimensions and collisional velocities. By changing the collisional angle of the incident Rydberg beam, the effect of Rydberg trajectory is also investigated. By manipulating the polarisation of the Rydberg electron with electric fields, genuine control over the orientation of the electron density distribution in the charge-transfer process is demonstrated. This property was predicted by the theory and should be unique to the hydrogen atom due to its intrinsic symmetry. By reversing the direction of the electric field with respect to the metal surface, electrons rather than positive ions are detected, with ionisation dynamics that appear to be very different, as predicted by quantum calculations. Experiments involving the single crystal Cu(100) surface also suggests possible resonance effects from image states embedded in the projected bandgap which are shown from quantum calculations to play an important role in the surface charge transfer of electronically structured metal substrates. The experimental technique developed in this work provides some exciting future applications to study quantum confinement effects with thin films, nanoparticles and other bandgap surfaces. The ability to control the Rydberg orbital size, electronic energy, collisional velocity and orientation in the charge-transfer process will provide novel ways of probing the surface’s electronic and physical structure, as well as being a valuable feature in offering new opportunities for controlling reactive processes at metallic surfaces.

The structure, bonding and chemistry of water and hydroxyl on metal surfaces are presented. Synchrotron based x-ray photoelectron- and x-ray absorption spectroscopy along with density functional theory calculations mainly form the basis of the results. Conditions span the temperature range 35 - 520 K and pressures from ultra-high vacuum (~10 fAtm) to near ambient pressures (~1 mAtm). The results provide, e.g, new insights on the importance of hydrogen bonding for surface chemical kinetics. Water adsorbs intact on the Pt(111), Ru(001) and Cu(110) surfaces at low temperatures forming 2-dimensional wetting layers where bonding to the metal (M) mainly occurs via H2O-M and M-HOH bonds. Observed isotope differences in structure and kinetics for H2O and D2O adsorption on Ru(001) are due to qualitatively different surface chemistries. D2O desorbs intact but H2O dissociates in kinetic competition with desorption similar to the D2O/Cu(110) system. The intact water layers are very sensitive to x-ray and electron induced damage. The mixed H2O:OH phase on Ru(001) consists of stripe-like structures 4 to 6 Ru lattice parameters wide where OH decorates the edges of the stripes. On Pt(111), two different long-range ordered mixed H2O:OH structures are found to be inter-related by geometric distortions originating from the asymmetric H-bond donor-acceptor properties of OH towards H2O. Water adsorption on Cu(110) was studied at near ambient conditions and compared to Cu(111). Whereas Cu(111) remains clean, Cu(110) holds significant amounts of water in a mixed H2O:OH layer. The difference is explained by the differing activation barriers for water dissociation, leading to the presence of OH groups on Cu(110) which lowers the desorption kinetics of water by orders of magnitude due to the formation of strong H2O-OH bonds. By lowering the activation barrier for water dissociation on Cu(111) by pre-adsorbing atomic O, generating adsorbed OH, similar results to those on Cu(110) are obtained.