| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| In Situ Spectroscopy and Microscopy Focus Topic | Thursday Sessions |
| Session IS+AS+SS-ThM |
| Session: | Ambient Pressure XPS from Sophistication to Reality |
| Presenter: | A. Kolmakov, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
| Authors: | A. Yulaev, Southern Illinois University Carbondale M. Amati, Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy L. Gregoratti, Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy S. Guenther, Technical University Muenchen, Germany M. Kiskinova, Sincrotrone Trieste, Italy I. Sgura, University of Salento, Italy B. Bozzini, University of Salento, Italy A. Kolmakov, Southern Illinois University Carbondale |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Truly in situ (photo-) electron spectroscopy and microscopy under ambient pressure conditions in different environments such as electrolytes, water, reactive liquids and gases would provide a nanoscopic access to processes taking place at solid-liquid-gas interfaces. However this exciting line of research still remains a challenging experimental task but is strongly demanded by a variety of active research directions i.e. in fuel cells, batteries, catalysis, (bio-) medical, automotive, geological, forensic etc. To address these needs a number of designs have been developed since nineties to probe the samples in liquid state or gases at sub-atmospheric pressure. In particular, the elevated pressure XPS at liquid solid and liquid-gas interfaces have been demonstrated via development of advanced differentially pumped lens systems for the electron energy analyzer or via liquid micro jets and droplet “trains” methods.
Novel quasi-2D materials such as graphene and its derivatives currently constitute the active source of innovations in electronics, optics, energy harvesting/storage, catalysis and bio-medical applications. When isolated as ultrathin (~0.3-1 nm) membranes, graphene sheets have thicknesses comparable to the effective attenuation length of 200-1000 eV electrons. In addition, these membranes are chemically stable, gas impermeable and mechanically robust. Based on this unique combination of properties and on recent developments in fabrication and transfer protocols we demonstrate the capability to perform XPS and electron microscopy studies of the processes taking place at liquid-solid interface through graphene-based membranes.