Mercury Vapor Sorption and Amalgamation with a Thin Gold Film

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• 作者：Tingting Hou ; Miao Chen ; George W. Greene ; Roger G. Horn
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：October 21, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：7
• 期：41
• 页码：23172-23181
• 全文大小：535K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Understanding the amalgamation mechanisms between mercury and gold is of fundamental interest and importance to many mercury sensing applications. However, there is only limited and piecemeal discussion in the literature of the mechanisms by which Au鈥揌g amalgams are formed on thin Au films. Here, we present a comprehensive description of a series of morphological changes occurring in a thin polycrystalline Au film during Au鈥揌g amalgamation investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). These microscopic investigations enable us to offer a coherent explanation for the features and the mechanisms of amalgamation of Hg with Au in the film. We also use an optical technique (fringes of equal chromatic order, FECO) to observe changes in optical thickness and reflectivity of the film. Amalgamation reactions in the film render it inhomogeneous, thus making optical techniques unsuitable as a method for quantitative monitoring of Hg vapor using Au films of this type.