N–doping of alumina thin film support to improve the thermal stability of Catalysts: Preparation and investigation

Highlights: • The N – doping of thin alumina film at the surface of metal substrate is described; • NO dissociation and Al diffusion and oxidation are responsible for the N – doping; • N – content can be varied by NO pressure at substrate annealing at 670 °C. This article presents the procedure for N – doping of alumina thin film grown on a metal substrate surface. The modification mechanism for model alumina by nitrogen during film formation is studied by in situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The preparation procedure, based on NO treatment of the growing alumina film, allows for nitrogen content control by NO pressure at a substrate temperature of 670 °C. The proposed N – doped model alumina support is suitable for catalysis oriented surface science studies devoted to enhancing supported metal particle resistance to thermal driven sintering.