On the mechanism of the transition from surface to bulk metal oxides (A perspective on the article 'Mechanism of PdO thin film formation during the oxidation of Pd(111)')

摘要

The oxidation of metals has been a persistent issue since humans first started extracting metals from ores over 8000 years ago. At high temperatures, the general outline of the process has been long understood [1]. A thin oxide layer rapidly forms which, due to entropic considerations, contains defects such as metal interstitials and oxygen vacancies. Thermal diffusion of these defects allows either oxygen to migrate to the underlying metal where it reacts, or the metal to migrate to the surface where it reacts with oxygen. It was not until the 1940s that Cabrera and Mott developed a detailed model of metal oxidation at temperatures where thermal diffusion is limited [1,2].