All articles tagged with #surface structure
Researchers used computer simulations to show gold’s surface atoms rearrange into hexagonal patterns that dramatically suppress oxidation (by about a billion to a trillion), explaining its long-lasting shine and suggesting new ways to optimize gold-catalyzed reactions.
Researchers overturn decades of assumptions about liquid gallium, showing covalent bonds vanish at its melting point and reappear as temperature rises, helping explain non-linear changes in conductivity; a follow-up study reveals the surface is not completely disordered but forms subtle, three-layer order that persists across several angstroms and is strengthened by an oxide layer, though a single bismuth impurity can disrupt it, with significant implications for liquid-metal technologies.
Chinese physicists used atomic force microscopy to reveal that ice's slipperiness is due to a disordered, liquid-like pre-melt coating on its surface, which acts as a lubricant. This discovery was made by examining the atomic structure of ice at extremely low temperatures, showing differences between internal hexagonal ice and the partially hexagonal surface ice.