• Journal of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.12-15
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• 2017

We presented a mapping the work function of the vanadium pentoxide ($V_2O_5$) nanonet structures by scanning Kelvin probe microscopy (SKPM). In this measurement, the $V_2O_5$ nanonet was self-assembled via dropping the solution of $V_2O_5$ nanowires (NWs) onto the $SiO_2$ substrate and drying the solvent, resulting in the networks of $V_2O_5$ NWs. We found that the SKPM signal as a surface potential of $V_2O_5$ nanonet is attributed to the contact potential difference (CPD) between the work functions of the metal tip and the $V_2O_5$ nanonet. We generated the histograms of the CPD signals obtained from the SKPM mapping of the $V_2O_5$ nanonet as well as the highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) which is used as a reference for the calibration of the SKPM tip. By using the histogram peaks of the CPD signals, we successfully estimated the work function of ~5.1 eV for the $V_2O_5$ nanonet structures. This work provides a possibility of a nanometer-scale imaging of the work function of the various nanostructures and helps to understand the electrical characteristics of the future electronic devices.