title: Driving Surface Chemistry at the Nanometer Scale Using Localized Heat and Stress.
abstract: Driving and measuring chemical reactions at the nanoscale is crucial for developing safer, more efficient, and environment-friendly reactors and for surface engineering. Quantitative understanding of surface chemical reactions in real operating environments is challenging due to resolution and environmental limitations of existing techniques. Here we report an atomic force microscope technique that can measure reaction kinetics driven at the nanoscale by multiphysical stimuli in an ambient environment. We demonstrate the technique by measuring local reduction of graphene oxide as a function of both temperature and force at the sliding contact. Kinetic parameters measured with this technique reveal alternative reaction pathways of graphene oxide reduction previously unexplored with bulk processing techniques. This technique can be extended to understand and precisely tailor the nanoscale surface chemistry of any two-dimensional material in response to a wide range of external, multiphysical stimuli.
authors.affiliation: Advanced Nano Manufacturing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University , 3123 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77840, United States.
authors.forename: Shivaranjan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Raghuraman
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University , 3255 TAMU, 580 Ross St., College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
authors.forename: Meagan B
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8664-770X
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Elinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University , 3255 TAMU, 580 Ross St., College Station, Texas 77843, United States.
authors.forename: James D
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-6244-5000
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Batteas
authors.affiliation: Advanced Nano Manufacturing Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University , 3123 TAMU, College Station, Texas 77840, United States.
authors.forename: Jonathan R
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-8232-4660
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Felts
keywords: Atomic force microscopy; mechanochemistry; nanolithography; single asperity friction; surface chemistry