Fyzikální ústav Akademie věd ČR

A new insight into the characterization of chemical properties of the elements has been contributed by a method of Czech and Japanese researchers, published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. State-of-the-art scanning-probe microscopes already enable scientists to resolve individual atoms on surfaces, but thanks to the new method, they can also measure the ability of these atoms to attract electrons, i.e. their electronegativity.

Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the CAS lead an international team, which developed a new method to analyze the scattering of electrons in nanocrystals. The method is so accurate that it can be used to detect the positions of even the lightest of all atoms – the hydrogens. The accuracy and reliability of the method was demonstrated in a publication, where hydrogen positions were determined in two different materials. The work was published in the journal Science in its January 13th, 2017 issue.