TY - JOUR A1 - Arinchtein, A. A1 - Schnack, R. A1 - Kraffert, K. A1 - Radnik, Jörg A1 - Dietrich, P. A1 - Sachse, René A1 - Krähnert, R. T1 - Role of Water in Phase Transformations and Crystallization of Ferrihydrite and Hematite N2 - The oxides, hydroxides, and oxo-hydroxides of iron belong to the most abundant materials on earth. They also feature a wide range of practical applications. In many environments, they can undergo facile phase transformations and crystallization processes. Water appears to play a critical role in many of these processes. Despite numerous attempts, the role of water has not been fully revealed yet. We present a new approach to study the influence of water in the crystallization and phase transformations of iron oxides. The approach employs model-type iron oxide films that comprise a defined homogeneous nanostructure. The films are exposed to air containing different amounts of water reaching up to pressures of 10 bar. Ex situ analysis via scanning electron microscopy, Transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, and X-ray diffraction is combined with operando near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to follow water-induced changes in hematite nd ferrihydrite. Water proves to be critical for the nucleation of ematite domains in ferrihydrite, the resulting crystallite orientation, and the underlying crystallization mechanism. KW - Iron oxide KW - Ferrihydrite KW - Hematite KW - Water KW - NAP-XPS KW - High pressure PY - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1021/acsami.0c05253 VL - 12 SP - 38714 EP - 38722 PB - ACS Publication AN - OPUS4-51201 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -