Welcome to the Nanoscale Materials Lab

The Nanoscale Materials Laboratory, established on the basis of an agreement by the Department of Physics of the University of Trieste (Department of Excellence 2023-2027) and Elettra, hosts researchers and students carrying out experiments in the fields of Surfaces, 2D Materials and Atomic Clusters Physics, in close collaboration with scientists from Elettra. Besides the other instruments the nmLab host the size-selected nanocluster source ENAC (Exact Number of Atoms in each Cluster). The nmLAB is associated to the National Quantum Science and Technology Institute funded within the PNRR. Since 2000 more than 80 students have carried out experimental work in the lab in preparation of their Master's degree thesis in Physics, as well as in the framework of the PhD in Nanotechnology and Physics. The Lab hosts also the Training Activity of the course Laboratory of Nanomaterials Physics for the undergraduate students in Physics of UniTS. 

Research Highlights | Publications

Oxygen on the top of the smallest mountain

 Due to the corrugation of graphene and the electronic structure of matter on the sub-nanometer scale, oxygen only adsorbs on top of very small size-selected Pt clusters


F. Loi et al., Small Structuresn 2400250, (2024)

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The smallest Silver oxide

Surprisingly bulk-like structural motifs appear in Silver-oxides already in the sub-nanoscale regime. Thanks to the new size-selected cluster source developed in the Lab we measured at the SuperESCA beamline the unusual process of Ag oxidation at T=20 K.


F. Loi et al., J. Mater. Chem. A 27, 14594 (2022)

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Unusual reversibility of molecular break-up

Pentacene molecules adsorbed on Ir(111) can undergo a reversible deydrogenation process that can be engineered to produce polyacenes, via on-surface synthesis.

Selected for the back cover of  Vol.12, Iss. 1

D. Curcio et al., Chemical Science 12, 170 (2021)

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It's a matter of transparency to van der Waals forces

The van der Waals interactions between light adsorbates with polar (Carbon Monoxide) and non-polar (Argon) character and a metal surface are partially screened by graphene which shows a translucency parameter equal to 0.507. 


F. Presel et al., ACS Nano 13, 12230 (2019)

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Epitaxial graphene boosts photocatalysis in titania nanoparticles

The choice of an interfacial layer of epitaxial graphene to support titania nanoparticles has been revealed as a key ingredient to dramatically increase their capability to split water and produce hydrogen. 


D. De Angelis et al., Carbon 157, 350 (2020)

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The role of carbon monomers and dimers in graphene growth

We show that the growth kinetics are controlled by a complex interplay between the diffusion of the carbon precursors on the growing graphene islands and their desorption. 
SELECTED FOR THE COVER ISSUE 10 (2018)


F. Presel et al., Nanoscale 10, 7396 (2018)

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Molecular twisting, lifting and curling

Coronene molecules undergo major conformational changes during surface-assisted dissociation on Ir(111): they tilt upward, then they undergo  a rotation and they settle to form a dome-shaped nanographene.
SELECTED FOR THE COVER OF VOL. 138, Issue 10.

D. Curcio et al., J. Am Chem. Soc.  138, 3395 (2016).

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