Specializing in surface analysis using time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) and scanning probe microscopy (SPM), I provide consultancy to industrial clients in the areas of surface and interface chemistry and metrology. To date, I have delivered over 2,000 confidential analytical reports, addressing failure analysis and materials characterization across a broad range of sectors — including automotive coatings, semiconductors, nanotechnology, medical devices, polymers, and solid-state battery materials and electrodes.

A key focus of my work is the development of advanced ToF-SIMS analytical methodologies — notably, leveraging principal component analysis (PCA) as a dimensionality reduction tool to uncover latent chemical information embedded in inter-ion intensity relationships, yielding deeper insight into surface and interface chemistry and enabling discrimination between distinct chemical structures.

My research interests also encompass the formation mechanisms of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), including organophosphonic acids (OPA) and organosilanes on oxide substrates, as well as alkanethiols on metal surfaces. In this area, I introduced the concept of leveraging the potential energy at the surface of an OPA solution in a solvent with a dielectric constant of approximately 4 — establishing a kinetically and thermodynamically favorable environment for SAM formation on hydrophilic surfaces.

Recent Publications

• H.-Y. Nie
  The variability in hydrocarbon ions (C_nH¯) of polymers detected by ToF-SIMS: Principal component analysis on carbon density and cross-linking degree
  Front. Anal. Sci. 5, 1512520 (2025).

• T.Y. Xu, J. She, S.W. Wang, A.T. Tang, J. Ren, Y. Liu, J.H. Henderson, Sebastian A. Skaanvik, Mark C. Biesinger and H.-Y. Nie
  Regulation of Mg-Cu alloy corrosion by Cu loading in a physiological solution: a study on morphology and surface chemistry
  Mater. Today Commun. 43, 111675 (2025).

• H.L. Bloomfield, M. Caverson and H.-Y. Nie
  Classification of ToF-SIMS detected chemicals causing nearly 1000 automotive paint craters
  J. Coat. Technol. Res. 22 , 447-459 (2025).

• Z.Q. Duan, Z.X. Xie, Y.M. Hu, J.W. Xu, J. Ren, Y. Liu and H.-Y. Nie
  Self-assembled monolayers of fluorinated phosphonic acid as a protective coating on aluminum
  Molecules 29, 706 (2024).

• L.H. Grey, H.-Y. Nie and M.C. Biesinger
  Defining the nature of adventitious carbon and improving its merit as a charge correction reference for XPS
  Appl. Sur. Sci. 653, 159319 (2024).

Updated on March 26, 2026.