title: Tip-induced nanoreactor for silicate.
abstract: Nanoscale scientific issues have attracted an increasing amount of research interest due to their specific size-effect and novel structure-property. From macro to nano, materials present some unique chemical reactivity that bulk materials do not own. Here we introduce a facile method to generate silicate with nanoscale control based on the establishment of a confined space between a meso/nanoscale tungsten tip and a smooth silica/silicon substrate. During the process, local water-like droplets deposition can be obviously observed in the confinement between the Si/SiO2 surfaces and the KOH-modified tungsten tip. By the combination of in-situ optical microscopy and Raman spectroscopy, we were able to take a deep insight of both the product composition and the underlying mechanism of such phenomena. It was indicated that such nanoreactor for silicate could be quite efficient as a result of the local capillarity and electric field effect, with implications at both nano and meso scales.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Liran
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China.
authors.forename: Jianbin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo