On the use of SKPFM for in situ studies of the repassivation of the native oxide film on aluminium in air Vrije Universiteit Brussel
This work presents a novel procedure to study the growth of the surface native oxide film on metals in air, based on scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy. For reactive metals such as aluminium, when the native metal oxide is damaged, fast reformation of the oxide film occurs. The methodology presented here allows this oxide film reformation to be studied in situ. By monitoring the evolution of the Volta potential with time in a scratch on ...