• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.99-106
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• 1998

Recently, scientists introduced a new type of microscope capable of investigating nonconducting surfaces in an atomic scale, which is called AFM (Atomic Force Microscope). It was an innovative attempt to overcome the limitation of STM (Scanning Tunnelling Microscope) which has been able to obtain the image of conducting surfaces. Surfaces of samples are imaged with atomic resolution. The AFM is an imaging tool or a profiler with unprecedented 3-D resolution for various surface types. The AFM technology, however, leaves a lot of room for improvement due to its delicate and fragile probing mechanism. One of the room for improvements is gap control between probe tip and sample surface. Distance between probe tip and sample surface must be kept in below one Angtrom in order to measure the sample surface in Angstrom resolution. In this paper, AFM system modeling, experimental system identification and control scheme based on system identification are performed and finally sample surface is measured by home-built AFM with such a control scheme.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.21-30
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• 2023

This work presents a correlation between the behavior of formic acid oxidation (FAO) on various Bi-modified Pt(poly) disk electrodes and their morphologies observed on Bi-modified Pt(111) disk electrodes using electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM) to understand the effects of Bi on Pt. To distinguish the FAO activities of Bi on Pt and plain Pt around Bi, additional Pt was intentionally deposited using two different routes: direct route and iodine route. In direct route, Pt was directly deposited on Bi islands and plain Pt sites around Bi islands, while in iodine route, Pt was exclusively deposited on Bi islands by protecting plain Pt sites with adsorbed iodine. Thus, a comparison of FAO performances on the two Bi-modified Pt electrodes with additional Pt (deposited in the different ways) disclosed a difference in FAO performances on plain Pt sites and Bi islands. When Bi coverage was ~0.04, the Bi deposits were scattered Bi islands enhancing FAO on Pt(poly). The additional Pt deposits using direct route increased FAO efficiency, while the ones using iodine route slightly decreased FAO current. The EC-STM observations indicated that Pt deposits around Bi islands, not on Bi islands, were responsible for the FAO current increase on Bi-modified Pt(poly). The FAO efficiency on Bi-modified Pt(poly) with a Bi coverage of ~0.25 increased by a factor of 2. However, the additional Pt deposits using the two Pt deposition routes notably decreased the FAO current. The dependency of FAO on Bi coverage was discussed in terms of electronic effect and ensemble effect.