MRT letter: Real time and in situ imaging the reversible evolution of ethanol vapor condensed on mica surface
✍ Scribed by Donghua Zhang; Chen Zhang; Fuchun Zhang; Jun Hu
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2011
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 359 KB
- Volume
- 74
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1059-910X
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✦ Synopsis
Abstract
The reversible adsorption and desorption of ethanol vapor on mica surface at ambient temperature were investigated in situ with time‐evolution by Vibrating Scanning Polarization Force Microscopy (VSPFM). At temperature 20°C and relative humidity 20%, ethanol vapor condensed and formed clusters on the freshly cleaved mica. These clusters expanded to a network structure and later formed a full film shown by continuous VSPFM imaging. The film broke into pieces and desorbed completely if in unsaturated condition. The film showed different apparent heights when different biases were used in VSPFM study, indicated polarized orientation of the ethanol molecules on the mica surface. It is a process of hours for the clusters or network structures to form a film on mica, which demonstrated that vapor ethanol molecule is not so easy to precipitate on mica as ethanol molecule in liquid stage. Microsc. Res. Tech. 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.