Self-repair, self-healing, ion solvation...
Our lab has a custom-built high-pressure atomic force microscope (HP-AFM) which can probe surfaces in a wide pressure range from UHV to 1 bar. This is an ideal tool for investigating the pressure-dependent solvation of atomically-flat and nano-structured ionic materials such as alkali halides. It is also ideal for studying the self-repair and self-healing phenomena observed on lead halide perovskites.
Selected papers:
S. Parida, S. Kumar, S. Cherf, S. Aharon, D. Cahen, B. Eren. Self-Healing and -Repair of Nanomechanical Damages in Lead Halide Perovskites. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2023, 2304278
S. Parida, J. S. Lacasa, B. Eren. Restructuring of the Nanostructured KBr Surface in the Presence of Water, Methanol, and Ethanol Vapors. J. Phys. Chem. C. 2022, 126, 13433–13340
Water adsorption on reducible oxides
Similar to the water adsorption experiments on ionic solids, we are also performing experiments on water adsorption on reducible oxides with our HP-AFM setup. You can find more on this in a couple of years.
Alcohol-water interactions
Both water and alcohols exhibit ubiquitous examples of hydrogen bonding. When mixed in the liquid phase, they exhibit unique structures different from those formed by water or alcohol molecules by themselves. This can easily be verified by the increase in temperature upon mixing them, which is the result of breaking of the hydrogen bonds and the formation of new and stronger hydrogen bonds between water and alcohol molecules. Interaction of water and methanol vapours on copper surfaces are as important as their interaction in the liquid phase, because of the methanol stream reforming reaction.
Selected papers:
R. Ben David, A. Ben Yaacov, B Eren. Hydrogen Exchange through Hydrogen Bonding between Methanol and Water in the Adsorbed State on Cu(111). J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2023, 14, 2644-2650