We report a new method to probe the solid-liquid interface through the use of a thin liquid layer on a solid surface. An ambient pressure XPS (AP-XPS) endstation that is capable of detecting high kinetic energy photoelectrons (7 keV) at a pressure up to 110 Torr has been constructed and commissioned. Additionally, we have deployed a “dip & pull” method to create a stable nanometers-thick aqueous electrolyte on platinum working electrode surface. Combining the newly constructed AP-XPS system, “dip & pull” approach, with a “tender” X-ray synchrotron source (2 keV–7 keV), we are able to access the interface between liquid and solid dense phases with photoelectrons and directly probe important phenomena occurring at the narrow solid-liquid interface region in an electrochemical system. Using this approach, we have performed electrochemical oxidation of the Pt electrode at an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) potential. Under this potential, we observe the formation of both Pt2+ and Pt4+ interfacial species on the Pt working electrode in situ. We believe this thin-film approach and the use of “tender” AP-XPS highlighted in this study is an innovative new approach to probe this key solid-liquid interface region of electrochemistry.

Electronic properties of dye-sensitized semiconductor nanocrystals, consisting of perylene (Pe) chromophores attached to 2 nm TiO2 nanocrystals via different anchor-cum-spacer groups, have been studied theoretically using density functional theory (DFT) cluster calculations. Approximate effective electronic coupling strengths for the heterogeneous electron-transfer interaction have been extracted from the calculated electronic structures and are used to estimate femtosecond electron-transfer times theoretically. Results are presented for perylenes attached to the TiO2 via formic acid (Pe-COOH), propionic acid (Pe-CH2-CH2-COOH), and acrylic acid (Pe-CH [Formula: see text] CH-COOH). The calculated electron transfer times are between 5 and 10 fs with the formic acid and the conjugated acrylic acid bridges and about 35 fs with the saturated propionic acid bridge. The calculated electron injection times are of the same order of magnitude as the corresponding experimental values and qualitatively follow the experimental trend with respect to the influence of the different substitutions on the injection times.

During the past decade, the application of ambient pressure photoemission spectroscopy (APPES) has been recognized as an important in situ tool to study environmental and materials science, energy related science, and many other fields. Several APPES endstations are currently under planning or development at the USA and international light sources, which will lead to a rapid expansion of this technique. The present work describes the design and performance of a new APPES instrument at the Advanced Light Source beamline 9.3.2 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. This new instrument, Scienta R4000 HiPP, is a result of collaboration between Advanced Light Source and its industrial partner VG-Scienta. The R4000 HiPP provides superior electron transmission as well as spectromicroscopy modes with 16 microm spatial resolution in one dimension and angle-resolved modes with simulated 0.5 degrees angular resolution at 24 degrees acceptance. Under maximum transmission mode, the electron detection efficiency is more than an order of magnitude better than the previous endstation at beamline 9.3.2. Herein we describe the design and performance of the system, which has been utilized to record spectra above 2 mbar.

Structural and electronic properties of bare and dye-sensitized TiO 2 clusters and nanoparticles with sizes of Յ2 nm have been studied by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Starting from truncated bulk lattice structures, the degree of structural reorganization, including the formation of TiAO surface species, of bare TiO 2 anatase nanocrystals, is found to be sensitive to the quality of the computational method. The electronic structures of optimized 1-2 nm nanoparticles show welldeveloped band structures with essentially no electronic bandgap defect states. Significant bandgap broadening due to quantum size effects is observed as the size of the nanocrystals is reduced from 2 nm to 1 nm in diameter, but further bandgap widening is limited by increasingly severe competing surface defect sites as the particles become smaller than ϳ1 nm in diameter. The applicability of the TiO 2 nanocrystals in modeling the electronic structure and electronic coupling at dye-sensitized TiO 2 nanocrystal interfaces has been investigated by attachment of pyridine to one of the nanoparticle models via phosphonic or carboxylic acid anchor groups.