Functional group, quantitive determination using FTIR

Several recent overviews of principles and applications of Raman, FTIR, and HREELS spectroscopies are available in the literature [35-37, 124]. The use of all major surface and interface vibrational spectroscopies in adhesion studies has recently been reviewed [38]. Infrared spectroscopy is undoubtedly the most widely applied spectroscopic technique of all methods described in this chapter because so many different forms of the technique have been developed, each with its own specific applicability. Common to all vibrational techniques is the capability to detect functional groups, in contrast to the techniques discussed in Sec. III.A, which detect primarily elements. The techniques discussed here all are based in principle on the same mechanism, namely, when infrared radiation (or low-energy electrons as in HREELS) interacts with a sample, groups of atoms, not single elements, absorb energy at characteristic vibrations (frequencies). These absorptions are mainly used for qualitative identification of functional groups in the sample, but quantitative determinations are possible in many cases. 

The usefulness of XPS in the study of the surface chemistry of carbonaceous materials is well established [120-123]. It is significant, however, that in 1994, while reviewing some aspects of the surface chemistry of carbon blacks and other carbons (in particular, active carbons), Boehm [48] devoted only a few lines to XPS and argued that XPS is not very useful for quantitative determinations. The selected examples included here are meant to give the reader an idea of the use of XPS in the last decade, often in combination with other methods such as FTIR and TPD, and more recently with solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), for both qualitative and quantitative characterization of the surface chemistry (i.e., functional groups) either of raw carbonaceous materials or after their treatment (e.g., activation, thermal or chemical treatment, and pyrolysis). 

It is obvious that the Boehm titration method is the most popular one for the determination of various types of acidic (and basic) surface functionalities in carbon materials. From 1966 until 2002, when Boehm himself published a critical assessment of the analysis of surface oxides on carbon [201], an exhaustive utilization of this method has been desaibed by many authors. They underlined its simplicity, but pointed out also the need for using other complementary methods such as potentiometric titration, tanperature-programmed desorption (TPD), spectroscopic methods (mainly XPS and FTIR), and thermodynamic approaches such as calorimetry. The case of TPD is of special interest, to identify oxygenated functionalities. However, the CO and CO2 peaks must certainly be deconvo-luted before the surface composition can be estimated. Thus, a quantitative TPD analysis of surface functional groups is sensitive to the deconvolution method and to experimental conditions. The results are generally discussed in relation to those of DRIFTS and XPS analysis, as can be seen from the references listed in Table 3.1. 

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