Dongxiang Wu’s research while affiliated with State University of New York and other places

The breaking of translational symmetry at oxide surfaces gives rise to coordinatively unsaturated cations/anions and surface restructuring—key factors that govern surface reactivity. Using direct in situ environmental transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations along with atomistic modeling, we report oscillatory redox behavior in CuO under H 2 , where cyclic surface reconstruction and reactivity modulation occur via the Mars–van Krevelen (MvK) mechanism. We observe self-switching between oxygen-rich and oxygen-deficient surface reconstructions, alternately activating and deactivating the surface for H 2 O formation. During periods of chemical inactivity, the oxygen-deficient surface undergoes slow reoxidation via lattice oxygen diffusing from subsurface and bulk reservoirs, restoring the active oxygen-rich surface termination. The inherent disparity in chemical activity among undercoordinated surface ions, along with sluggish subsurface-to-surface oxygen replenishment, drives this oscillatory redox cycle, modulating H 2 -induced loss of lattice oxygen at the surface and its delayed replenishment from the subsurface. This creates spatiotemporally separated redox steps at the oxide surface. The phenomena and atomistic insights presented here have significant implications for manipulating the surface reactivity of oxides by tuning the separation of these redox steps.

The phenomenon of oxygen adsorption induced surface restructuring is widespread across various metal-oxygen systems, yet its impact on initiating bulk oxide formation remains largely unexplored. Through in situ atomic-resolution electron microscopy observations of surface oxidation of Cu(110) and Cu85Au15(110), we unveil intermittent oxide-film growth modulated by oxygen-induced surface restructuring. This modulation is evidenced by repeated pinning of the Cu2O growth front at isolated Cu columns of the c(6×2)-O reconstruction, owing to required long-range diffusion of Cu and O atoms to the Cu2O growth front. We reveal that Cu vacancies, generated at the Cu2O growth front, are injected into the Cu2O/Cu interface, inducing hill and valley undulation of the Cu2O film. In contrast, atomic vacancies produced during the Cu85Au15(110) oxidation preferentially migrate into interfaces between Au-rich and Au-poor regions in the bulk, resulting in a flat and adherent Cu2O film. These findings demonstrate the critical role of oxygen-induced surface restructuring in modulating oxide film growth kinetics and the manipulability of the fate of injected vacancies by alloying, thereby offering insights applicable to a broader range of metal-oxygen systems for fine-tuning oxidation kinetics and enhancing oxide/metal interfacial adhesion.

Redox‐induced interconversions of metal oxidation states typically result in multiple phase boundaries that separate chemically and structurally distinct oxides and suboxides. Directly probing such multi‐interfacial reactions is challenging because of the difficulty in simultaneously resolving the multiple reaction fronts at the atomic scale. Using the example of CuO reduction in H2 gas, a reaction pathway of CuO → monoclinic m‐Cu4O3 → Cu2O is demonstrated and identifies interfacial reaction fronts at the atomic scale, where the Cu2O/m‐Cu4O3 interface shows a diffuse‐type interfacial transformation; while the lateral flow of interfacial ledges appears to control the m‐Cu4O3/CuO transformation. Together with atomistic modeling, it is shown that such a multi‐interface transformation results from the surface‐reaction‐induced formation of oxygen vacancies that diffuse into deeper atomic layers, thereby resulting in the formation of the lower oxides of Cu2O and m‐Cu4O3, and activate the interfacial transformations. These results demonstrate the lively dynamics at the reaction fronts of the multiple interfaces and have substantial implications for controlling the microstructure and interphase boundaries by coupling the interplay between the surface reaction dynamics and the resulting mass transport and phase evolution in the subsurface and bulk.

The microscopic mechanisms underpinning the spontaneous surface passivation of metals from ubiquitous water have remained largely elusive. Here, using in situ environmental electron microscopy to atomically monitor the reaction dynamics between aluminum surfaces and water vapor, we provide direct experimental evidence that the surface passivation results in a bilayer oxide film consisting of a crystalline-like Al(OH) 3 top layer and an inner layer of amorphous Al 2 O 3 . The Al(OH) 3 layer maintains a constant thickness of ~5.0 Å, while the inner Al 2 O 3 layer grows at the Al 2 O 3 /Al interface to a limiting thickness. On the basis of experimental data and atomistic modeling, we show the tunability of the dissociation pathways of H 2 O molecules with the Al, Al 2 O 3 , and Al(OH) 3 surface terminations. The fundamental insights may have practical significance for the design of materials and reactions for two seemingly disparate but fundamentally related disciplines of surface passivation and catalytic H 2 production from water.

Surface-induced breaking of translation symmetry of a crystalline oxide results in various types of coordinately unsaturated cations/anions and surface restructuring , yet identifying the stability, functionality and activity of the coordinated unsaturated sites of gas-oxide interfaces remains challenging owing to their dynamic behaviors in reacting gas and temperature environments and issues with current characterization tools. Through direct in-situ transmission electron microscopy observations and atomistic modeling, here we report cyclic self-refresh between oxygen-rich and oxygen-deficient surface reconstructions of CuO in H 2 that are chemically active and inactive for H2O formation, respectively. After a period of chemical inactivity, the oxygen-deficient surface re-oxidizes back to the oxygen-rich termination due to the outward diffusion of lattice oxygen from the subsurface. This cyclic surface refresh is intrinsically induced by the disparity in chemical activity of undercoordinated surface atoms in modulating H 2 -induced loss of lattice oxygen at the surface and subsequent oxygen replenishment from the subsurface, which results in spatiotemporally separated redox reaction steps at the oxide surface. The atomistic mechanism has significant implications in manipulating the surface reactivity of oxides by tuning this separation of the redox steps at oxide surfaces.

Most engineering materials are based on multiphase microstructures produced either through the control of phase equilibria or by the fabrication of different materials as in thin-film processing. In both processes, the microstructure relaxes towards equilibrium by mismatch dislocations (or geometric misfit dislocations) across the heterophase interfaces1–5. Despite their ubiquitous presence, directly probing the dynamic action of mismatch dislocations has been unachievable owing to their buried nature. Here, using the interfacial transformation of copper oxide to copper as an example, we demonstrate the role of mismatch dislocations in modulating oxide-to-metal interfacial transformations in an intermittent manner, by which the lateral flow of interfacial ledges is pinned at the core of mismatch dislocations until the dislocation climbs to the new oxide/metal interface location. Together with atomistic calculations, we identify that the pinning effect is associated with the non-local transport of metal atoms to fill vacancies at the dislocation core. These results provide mechanistic insight into solid–solid interfacial transformations and have substantial implications for utilizing structural defects at buried interfaces to modulate mass transport and transformation kinetics. Environmental transmission electron microscopy is used to reveal that mismatch dislocations modulate the interfacial transformation of copper oxide to copper metal in an intermittent manner.