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CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University has received a $648,000 "major research instrumentation" grant from the National Science Foundation, part of a $1.4 million package to allow the university to acquire a near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, or XPS system.

The grant will be matched by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, and Oregon BEST.

"There will be no other XPS system in the world that has all the same capabilities," said Greg Herman, an associate professor of chemical engineering at OSU and the grant's principal investigator. "This laboratory will enhance interdisciplinary research and education programs throughout the scientific and engineering communities."

Conventional XPS technology is a surface analysis technique, which provides the composition, chemical and electronic states of surfaces and interfaces from materials or thin-film structures -- information needed in many applications such as catalysis, corrosion, adhesion, semiconductor and dielectric materials, and magnetic media. XPS is used in the automotive, aerospace, electronics, healthcare, and petrochemical industries, and samples under study must be kept under ultra-high vacuum conditions during the analysis.

"A unique aspect of this XPS system is that it allows us to study reactions at pressures close to those on the Earth's surface, while typical XPS systems operate near lunar surface pressures," said Herman. "These pressure extremes can significantly change the chemistries that can take place."

The near-ambient XPS system will be the foundation of the surface characterization laboratory in Johnson Hall, a state-of-the-art engineering building and the future home of the School of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering. It will be available to researchers from OSU, the Oregon University System, and national and international collaborators from academia, government laboratories, and industry.