Edges electronic structure determination

Electronic Structure Determination, Cox and Beaumont have studied the polarized x-ray absorption edge of a single crystal of Zn 2 (23), in which the Zn has tetragonal (D ) site symmetry. The observed anisotropic K-absorption edges were explained in terms of a ls+4p and a ls-K4p, 4p ) transition. 

EXAFS analysis is a powerful spectroscopic method for structural analysis which has been extensively applied to the problem of structure determination in nanoparticles, and especially bimetallic nanoparticles [170-172]. The X-ray absorption spectrum of an element contains absorption edges corresponding to the excitation of electrons from various electronic states at energies characteristic of that element, i.e., K edges arise from the excitation of electrons from Is states, and LI, II, III edges from excitations from 2s, 2p 1/2, and 2p3/2 states. When the X-ray energy is increased above an edge, oscillations (fine... 

The applications of polarized x-ray absorption spectroscopy (PXAS) for structure determination in inorganic and bioinorganic systems are discussed. PXAS studies of oriented samples add angular detail to the information obtained from x-ray absorption edges and from EXAFS. In some cases, PXAS can be used to determine molecular orientation. In other cases, PXAS can be used to infer the details of electronic structure or of chemical bonding. Some of the potential future applications of PXAS are discussed. 

Orientation Determination. While polarized edge studies, together with a known sample orientation, can provide information about the electronic structure of the absorber, one can also use polarized edges to probe ordered systems of unknown orientation. This sort of approach was used in a study of B adsorbed on graphite (26,27). In this case, the orientational dependence of an edge transition was used to calculate the degree of orientational purity of the graphite surface. 

Van Aken, PA., Liebscher, B. and Styrsa, VJ. (1998) Quantitative determination of iron oxidation states in minerals using Fe L -edge electron energy-loss near-edge structure spectroscopy. Phys. Chem. Miner., 25, 323. 

However, this assumption is not necessarily justified. Even for a well-faceted nanoparticle there are a number of nonequivalent adsorption sites. For example, in addition to the low-index facets, the palladium nanoparticle exhibits edges and interface sites as well as defects (steps, kinks) that are not present on a Pd(l 1 1) or Pd(lOO) surface. The overall catalytic performance will depend on the contributions of the various sites, and the activities of these sites may differ strongly from each other. Of course, one can argue that stepped/kinked high-index single-crystal surfaces (Fig. 2) would be better models (64,65), but this approach still does not mimic the complex situation on a metal nanoparticle. For example, the diffusion-coupled interplay of molecules adsorbed on different facets of a nanoparticle (66) or the size-dependent electronic structure of a metal nanoparticle cannot be represented by a single crystal with dimensions of centimeters (67). It is also shown below that some properties are merely determined by the finite size or volume of nanoparticles (68). Consequently, the properties of a metal nanoparticle are not simply a superposition of the properties of its individual surface facets. 

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