We examined a novel heterogeneous system consisting of a metal on a highly corrugated transition-metal oxide surface by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Pt forms three-dimensional nanoclusters with a narrow size distribution on the anatase TiO2 (001)-(1x4) surface. Upon annealing in vacuum, Pt clusters that initially existed on terraces migrated without coalescing to step edges via a cluster diffusion mechanism. Time-dependent autocorrelation analysis revealed that the diffusion occurred preferentially along the atomic rows. The diffusion barrier and prefactor along this direction were determined to be ~ 0.27 eV and ~ 400 ?2/s, respectively.
Revised: January 12, 2012 |
Published: May 20, 2001
Citation
Gan S., A. El-Azab, and Y. Liang. 2001.Formation and diffusion of Pt nanoclusters on highly corrugated anatase TiO2 (001)-(1x4) surface.Surface Science Letters 479, no. 1-3:L369-L374.PNNL-SA-34415.