Australian Institute of Physics

South Australian Branch

Joint meeting
Joint Dinner and Meeting with the

Royal Australian Chemical Institute, SA branch

Monday, June 21st, 2004, at 6:45pm

Place: Directors Hotel, 247 Gouger St, Adelaide, 1st floor (front door, go past the Pokies on the right and ascend the stairs at the back).

Time: 6:45 Dinner, 7:15 Talk

Speaker: Dr J.S. Quinton,
School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences, Flinders University

"The Adsorption and Self-Organisation of Silane Surface Modifiers on Metal Oxide Surfaces"

Abstract:
In the spirit of this joint meeting between South Australia's two leading scientific societies, I will describe a fascinating phenomenon that has been observed while performing multi-disciplinary research at the interface between physics and chemistry. Namely, during silane-based surface modification of metal oxide surfaces so called oscillatory adsorption occurs, whereby the coverage of the silane surface coating oscillates as a function of metal oxide substrate exposure. Both chemical and physical perspectives of the system will be described but particular focus will be placed on the developments that have been made towared unravelling this enigma, through attempts to model and identify the molecular mechanisms involved.