Effect of surface mechanical attrition treatment of titanium using alumina balls： surface roughness, contact angle and apatite forming ability

The effect of surface mechanical attrition treatment （SMAT） of commercially pure titanium （CP-Ti） using 8 mm O alumina balls was studied. SMAT induced plastic deformation, increased the surface roughness, reduced the grain size and decreased the contact angle （from 64° to 43°） with a corresponding increase in surface energy （from 32 to 53 mJ/m2）. Untreated CP-Ti and those treateded using alumina bails for 900 s reveals no apatite growth until the 28th day of immersion whereas those treated for 1800 and 2700 s exhibit apatite growth In selective areas and the extent of growth is increased with increase in immersion time an SBF; The study reveals that SMAT using alumina balls is beneficial in imparting the desired surface Cheracteristics, provided the surface contamination is limited, which would otherwise decrease the apatite forming ability.

Two-dimensional self-assembly of melem and melemium cations at pH-controlled aqueous solution-Au（111） interfaces under electrochemical control

Two-dimensional self-assembly of melem at pH-controlled aqueous solution-Au（111） interfaces has been investigated by electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy. In the solutions with pH 〉 pKbl of melem, two ordered self-assembled structures （honeycomb and close-packed structures） and one disordered fibrillar structure were observed as a function of the surface coverage ofmelem controlled by the electrode potential. In contrast, in the acidic solution with pH 〈 pKbl of melem, only the self-assembled honeycomb network was observed in a relatively wide potential range probably due to the presence of monoprotonated melem cations. Dots attrib- uted to counteranions were frequently observed in the pores of the honeycomb network. The lack of close-packed and fibrillar structures at low pH （ 〈 pKbl） is attributed to ionic repulsion of melemium cations.

Review： Tip-based vibrational spectroscopy for nanoscale analysis of emerging energy materials

Vibrational spectroscopy is one of the key instrumentations that provide non-invasive investigation of structural and chemical composition for both organic and inorganic materials. However, diffraction of light funda- mentally limits the spatial resolution of far-field vibrational spectroscopy to roughly half the wavelength. In this article, we thoroughly review the integration of atomic force microscopy （AFM） with vibrational spectroscopy to enable the nanoscale characterization of emerging energy materials, which has not been possible with far-field optical techniques. The discussed methods utilize the AFM tip as a nanoscopic tool to extract spatially resolved electronic or molecular vibrational resonance spectra of a sample illuminated by a visible or infrared （IR） light source. The absorption of light by electrons or individual functional groups within molecules leads to changes in the sample＇s thermal response, optical scattering, and atomic force interactions, all of which can be readily probed by an AFM tip. For example, photothermal induced resonance （PTIR） spectroscopy methods measure a sample＇s local thermal expansion or temperature rise. Therefore, they use the AFM tip as a thermal detector to directly relate absorbed IR light to the thermal response of a sample. Optical scattering methods based on scanning near-field optical microscopy （SNOM） correlate the spectrum of scattered near-field light with molecular vibrational modes. More recently, photo-induced force microscopy （PiFM） has been developed to measure the change of the optical force gradient due to the light absorption by molecular vibrational resonances using AFM＇s superb sensitivity in detecting tip-sample force interactions. Such recent efforts successfully breech the diffraction limit of light to provide nanoscale spatial resolution of vibrational spectroscopy,which will become a critical technique for characterizing novel energy materials.