SPATIALLY CONTROLLED OXIDATION BY THE TIP OF A SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPE OPERATING INSIDE A REACTOR

The tip of a scanning tunneling microscope that operates inside an atmospheric pressure chemical reactor cell, has been used to locally oxidize carbonaceous fragments deposited on the surface of Pt(111). The carbon fragments were produced by partial dehydrogenation of propylene. The reactant gas environment inside the cell consisted of pure O-2 at 300 K. The Pt/Rh tip acted as a catalyst after activation by short voltage pulses. In this active state the clusters in the area scanned by the tip were reacted away with very high spatial resolution.