Metal-oxide surfaces

Over the past two decades the amount of effort devoted to the study of metal oxides by surface scientists has increased significantly. The general characteristics of the electronic structure of metal-oxide surfaces are now fairly well understood, although transition-metal oxides have been more thoroughly studied than have non-transition-metal oxides. The geometric arrangement of atoms on the surfaces of a variety of metal oxides has also been determined. Extensive studies have been performed of the interaction of both molecules and metal atoms with metal oxides, where point defects are found to play a dominant role. However, our understanding of the surface properties of metal oxides is still much less compete than it is for metals and semiconductors, and there are several areas where more experimental and theoretical effort needs to be concentrated.