In situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy of chemical interfaces in gas and liquid environments

Abstract

Many energy-storage and energy-conversion systems are based on the complexity of material architecture, chemistry and interfacial interactions. To understand and thus ultimately control the energy applications calls for in situ/operando characterization tools. Over the years, in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy has been developed for the studies of gas molecules, molecular liquids, catalytic, and electrochemical reactions. Soft x-ray spectroscopy offers electronic structure characterization of materials in energy conversion, energy storage, and catalysis regarding functionality, complexity of material architecture, and chemical interactions. It has been shown how to use the powerful in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy characterization techniques of interfacial phenomena and how to reveal the mechanism of charge transfer and chemical transformation of solid/gas and solid/liquid interfaces of energy storage and catalytic materials in a realistic environment. It has been demonstrated how to overcome the challenge that soft x-rays cannot easily peek into the high-pressure catalytic or liquid 1 MRS Bulletin Article Template Author Name/Issue Date electrochemical reactions. The unique design of in situ/operando soft x-ray spectroscopy instrumentation and fabrication principle and examples of experiments are presented.

Kinetic Insights of Proton Exchange Membrane Water Electrolyzer Obtained by Operando Characterization Methods

“…Other in situ/operando methods, like ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) and in situ/operando soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (sXAS), have been reported to reveal the mechanisms of electron transfer of catalytic processes. 84 Yang et al 85 presented a unique design of in situ/operando soft X-ray spectroscopy instrumentation and fabrication, as well as examples of experiments, including electron transfer at solid−solid and solid−liquid interfaces. Kao et al 86 performed sXAS to probe the molecular-scale structure of electrode interfaces by measuring total electron yield.…”