Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mphil-in-micro-and-nanotechnology-enterprise-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-2/section-a-i/14/ii/solution
Past exam of the MPhil in micro- and nanotechnology enterprise course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 2 Section A(i) 14 ii Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
The gas impingement flux onto a surface follows from the normal component of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:Here and , givingAssume a conventional monolayer density and unit sticking coefficient. The incident-monolayer time isThus a few milliseconds is the usual contamination-time estimate at this pressure.
The assumed molecular footprint matters: neither nor the sticking coefficient is specified. More generally if the sticking probability is and desorption is negligible. Water can desorb rapidly from clean graphene at room temperature, so the incident-monolayer estimate does not establish that a stable, complete water layer actually forms in that time. Residues and defects can increase local adsorption.
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