| Institution: | 1. Institute of Chemistry and The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 9190401 Israel;2. ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0QX UK;3. Department of Chemistry, University College of London, Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ UK
Research Complex at Harwell, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Harwell Oxford, Didcot, Oxfordshire, OX11 0FA UK;4. Department of Chemistry, University College of London, Gordon Street, London, WC1H 0AJ UK |
| Abstract: | An ultra-high increase in the WF of silver, from 4.26 to 7.42 eV, that is, an increase of up to circa 3.1 eV is reported. This is the highest WF increase on record for metals and is supported by recent computational studies which predict the potential ability to affect an increase of the WF of metals by more than 4 eV. We achieved the ultra-high increase by a new approach: Rather than using the common method of 2D adsorption of polar molecules layers on the metal surface, WF modifying components, l -cysteine and Zn(OH)2, were incorporated within the metal, resulting in a 3D architecture. Detailed material characterization by a large array of analytical methods was carried out, the combination of which points to a WF enhancement mechanism which is based on directly affecting the charge transfer ability of the metal separately by cysteine and hydrolyzed zinc(II), and synergistically by the combination of the two through the known Zn-cysteine finger redox trap effect. |
