Group of Nanolayer Chemistry

Nowadays the information on the upper atomic layers of solid samples (both chemical composition and structure) is becoming more and more important not only from scientific point of view but also for technical applications.

Surface engineering methods based on particle beam treatments belong to the prospective and multidisciplinary field of materials science. The particle beam modification of solid materials leads to alteration in their surface composition, chemical and electronic structures, resulting in modification in their mechanical, tribological, optical, and electrical properties, wettability, adhesive bonding, biocompatibility, etc.

The aim of our group is the modification of surface layers of selected materials (polymers, oxides, nitrides, etc.) by various particle (ion, atom, plasma, etc.) beams, study of the beam-induced compositional and structural changes by advanced surface analytical methods (XPS, XAES) as well as of some of their property changes (like hardness, friction, wear, etc.), obtaining thus modification-structure-performance type relationships.

The X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy, as the most powerful analysis technique of the group (supplying qualitative, quantitative and chemical structure information), was introduced in 1983 in the (former) Research Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry.