Jan Balajka

Google Scholar Profile
ORCID (0000-0001-7101-1055)

Short CV List of Publications

• Institute of Applied Physics, TU Wien
  Wiedner Hauptstrasse 8-10/134, 1040 Wien, Austria
• Phone: +43-1-58801-13476 (lab -13456, -13482, -13486)

• email: jan.balajka@tuwien.ac.at

• 2020 - Assistant Professor (University Assistant), TU Wien, Austria
• 2019-2020 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. (Advisor: Melissa A. Hines)
• 2013-2018 Ph.D. in Physics, TU Wien, Austria (Advisor: Ulrike Diebold)

• 2019 Loschmidt Prize of Physical Chemistry Society, Austria

• Oxide, hydroxide and mineral surfaces
• Solid-liquid interfaces
• Heterogeneous ice nucleation
• Carbon capture and mineralization
• Scanning probe microscopy (AFM/STM)

Our team explores the interaction of water with solid surfaces. The experiments span from fundamental adsorption studies under ultrahigh vacuum to reactions with complex environments of liquids and high pressures of gases. Through the experiments, we gain a better understanding of materials' structure and stability under realistic conditions. We strive to unveil the origins of natural processes in the environment and to improve technological processes occurring at the solid-liquid interface. We use scanning probe microscopy (STM/AFM) to study the structure with atomic precision in combination with chemically sensitive spectroscopic methods (XPS, LEIS) and electron diffraction (LEED). We have constructed an apparatus capable of dosing ultrapure liquid water on samples prepared and characterized under ultrahigh vacuum without exposing them to air, thus eliminating the spurious effects of air-borne impurities.

• Stoichiometric reconstruction of the Al₂O₃(0001) surface Science 385 (2024), 6714, 1241-1244
• High-affinity adsorption leads to molecularly ordered interfaces on TiO₂ in air and solution Science 361 (2018), 6404, 786-789
• Apparatus for dosing liquid water in ultrahigh vacuum Review of Scientific Instruments 89, 083906 (2018)
• Surface Structure of TiO₂ Rutile (011) Exposed to Liquid Water J. Phys. Chem. C 2017, 121, 47, 26424–26431
• Atomic structure of oxide surfaces in aqueous environment (review chapter) Encyclopedia of Solid-Liquid Interfaces (First Edition), 200-209, Elsevier, 2023
• Self-limited growth of an oxyhydroxide phase at the Fe₃O₄(001) surface in liquid and ambient pressure water J Chem Phys 151, 154702 (2019)
• Atomic‐scale studies of Fe₃O₄(001) and TiO₂(110) surfaces following immersion in CO₂‐acidified water ChemPhysChem 21, 1788-1796 (2020)
• Rapid oxygen exchange between hematite and water vapor Nature Communications 12, 6488 (2021)