Welcome! Scott S. Perry is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Florida. Research Themes: physical chemistry, materials chemistry, surface science, scanning probe microscopy, tribology, metal carbides, metal oxides, organic thin films, educational technology.

My research involves the use of scanning probe microscopy and ultra high vacuum (UHV) surface analytical techniques to study the structure, chemical reactivity, and tribological properties of a number of different classes of material surfaces.

These include metal oxides, metal carbides, metal nitrides, ultra thin polymer films, and organic self-assembled monolayers.

Copper nanoparticles (100 nm x 100 nm field of view) on MgO(100) imaged in vacuum by noncontact atomic force microscopy.

An important theme throughout this work is the correlation of molecular structure and composition with the measured chemical reactivity and mechanical response of the interface. The use of an array of experimental techniques is needed in developing a compete picture of these materials surfaces.

From MRS Bulletin, July 2004:
“Tribology is one of the many fields in which the use of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has provided new insights at length scales not previously accessible… The mechanical nature of the contact between a probe tip and surface offers the opportunity to characterize a number of interfacial forces. Repulsive forces are at the center of topographic and phase imaging, adhesive forces are experienced for certain tip/surface pairs when the tip is withdrawn from the surface, and friction forces are experienced when the tip or surface is laterally translated with respect to other material. Both repulsive and adhesive forces result in normal deflection of the cantilever, while friction forces result in lateral torsion of the cantilever.
--Scott S. Perry, “Scanning Probe Microscopy Measurements of Friction”

Perry Group, Spring 2007