An international team of researchers at Vienna University of
Technology in Austria and at Princeton University in the USA has confirmed
theoretically-predicted interactions between single oxygen molecules and
crystalline titanium dioxide. The results, which could be of importance for a
variety of applications, have been published in the current issue of Science
Magazine.
Titanium dioxide is an inexpensive, yet versatile material.
It is used as a pigment in wall paint, as a biocompatible coating in medical
implants, as a catalyst in the chemical industry and as UV protection in
sunscreen. When applied as a thin
coating, it can keep all sorts of surfaces sparkling clean. The use of titanium
oxide in the electronics industry is currently being investigated. Fundamental to all these properties could be
the atomic properties discovered by Ulrike Diebold from the Institute of
Applied Physics at TU Vienna and Annabella Selloni from the Frick Laboratory at
Princeton and their teams.