project name: Inorganic oxides: surfaces and interfaces
initiating country: The European Union
programme area: ESF – European Science Foundation contract type: ESF COST
contract/proposal/call number: D41
status: active
start date: September 2006 duration: 48 months projected finish date: September 2010
keywords: oxide surfaces and interfaces
Note that the follow people may not represent the full extent of the consortium. FEAST has tried to identify the Australian participants, and their collaborators (or coordinator), within the project. Also note that Australian participation may not necessarily be on a formal level. Further details about the partners in this project can be found at the website listed below.
| name | organisation | state or country |
|---|---|---|
| Dr Gregory Metha | The University of Adelaide | SA, Australia |
| Prof Ulrich Heiz | Technische Universität München | Germany |
summary:
The main objective of the Action is to increase our knowledge and understanding of the properties of oxide surfaces and interfaces at an atomistic level and to develop the means of predicting and controlling their structures and functions at the nanometre scale.
In the long term this is expected to improve their use in various areas of advanced technologies ranging from: solar energy conversion to heterogeneous catalysis; from microelectronics to corrosion protection; from chemical sensors to bio-compatible structural materials, etc.
This COST Action is an important tool of scientific cooperation at the interface between different research areas, which will facilitate exchange of technical and scientific solutions between different domains and provide synergy of collaboration unattainable at a lower level of interaction between institutions involved. It will serve to fulfil an important challenge for Europe to develop a scientific network of competence in Inorganic Oxides Surfaces and Interfaces.
Secondary objectives
1) To learn on model systems how to control the surface morphology of an oxide surface so as to transfer this expertise to more applied areas.
2) To learn how to create and control desired concentrations of specific defects at oxide surfaces and interfaces in order to design the properties of systems and devices (defects engineering).
3) To develop and improve methods of growing and synthesising oxide materials in various forms with the desired level of purity.
4) To develop a series of novel experimental approaches and techniques as well as computational methods to unravel structural aspects of oxide surfaces and interfaces and correlate these with their electronic properties and chemical functions.
5) To span the entire area of oxide materials from thin and ultra-thin films to single crystals, from powders to porous structures, and to transfer knowledge among these domains.
6) To train young scientists in a strongly interdisciplinary field of research.
Source: COST office