Surface Science
The Laboratory of Surface Science at CIMAINA is involved in research on phenomena at surfaces and interfaces of nanostructured materials, polymeric biomaterials, and ionic liquids. The main objectives deal with the gain of insights into the physicochemical surface and interface properties at molecular level. The lab is equipped with facilities for electron spectroscopy (XPS, UPS, AES) and optical spectrophotometry (UV-Vis). Photoelectron spectroscopies are analytical techniques highly sensitive to the outermost surface features (up to few atomic layers) of UHV compatible materials. The kinetic energies and the flux of emitted photoelectrons upon X-ray irradiation are measured. The resonance structures present in the energy spectrum allow the identification and quantification of the elements, as well as their chemical state. Spectrophotometry allows the quantitative measurement of the reflection or transmission properties of a material as a function of wavelength.