I have been working on the oxidation of metals: platinum, palladium, rhodium,
silver, copper, lithium and titanium. The platinum-group and noble metals are essential
for heterogenous catalysis, specially for oxidation catalysis; an understanding of surface
oxides at atomistic level is of fundamental interest and could help designing better
catalysts. Sometimes even the bulk oxides of these metals are poorly characterized, as it
was the case for platinum. I have individuated the crystal structure of bulk Pt3O4 (ref 1)
and predicted the possibility to produce alpha-PtO2 nanotubes (ref. 5). I have individuated
the atomic structures of several oxygen phases at surfaces. Lithium oxides form reversibly
in lithium ion batteries with an oxygen cathode that has been recently proposed. I have
predicted shape and stability of nanoparticles of these metals in presence of oxygen.
Summarizing:
