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Title: Passive Oxide Film Growth Observed On the Atomic Scale

Journal Article · · Advanced Materials Interfaces

Despite of the ubiquitous presence of passivation on most metal surfaces, the microscopic-level picture of how surface passivation occurs has been hitherto unclear. Using the canonical example of the surface passivation of aluminum, here we employ in situ atomistic transmission electron microscopy observations and computational modeling to disentangle entangled microscopic processes and identify the atomic processes leading to the surface passivation. Based on atomic-scale observations of the layer-by-layer expansion of the metal lattice and its subsequent transformation into the amorphous oxide, it is shown that the surface passivation occurs via a two-stage oxidation process, in which the first stage is dominated by intralayer atomic shuffling whereas the second stage is governed by interlayer atomic disordering upon the progressive oxygen uptake. The first stage can be bypassed by increasing surface defects to promote the interlayer atomic migration that results in direct amorphization of multiple atomic layers of the metal lattice. The identified two-stage reaction mechanism and the effect of surface defects in promoting interlayer atomic shuffling can find broader applicability in utilizing surface defects to tune the mass transport and passivation kinetics, as well as the composition, structure and transport properties of the passivation films.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Binghamton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; National Science Foundation (NSF); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; SC0001135; DMR-1905572; DMR-1905422
OSTI ID:
1856775
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1848013; OSTI ID: 1864765
Report Number(s):
BNL-222886-2022-JAAM
Journal Information:
Advanced Materials Interfaces, Vol. 9, Issue 11; ISSN 2196-7350
Publisher:
Wiley-VCHCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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