Transition metal oxides: Extra thermodynamic stability as thin films - art. no. 066106

The oxides of many transition metals wet their own metal surface. The adhesion energy at this interface (E-adh,E-ox/m) provides extra stabilization, which lowers the O-2 pressure required for oxide stability as a thin film below that required for bulk-oxide stability by the factor exp[(2 gamma(g/ox)-E-adh,E-ox/m)/(tN(ox)RT)], where gamma(g/ox) is the surface energy of the oxide, t is the oxide film thickness, and N-ox is the oxygen concentration in the bulk oxide (moles O-2 per volume). For oxide films only similar to 1 nm thick, this correction can be many orders of magnitude. This may extend to other compounds.