Advantages of soft X-ray absorption over TEM-EELS for solid carbon studies - A comparative study on diesel soot with EELS and NEXAFS

A. Braun*, F. E. Huggins, N. Shah, Y. Chen, S. Wirick, S. B. Mun, C. Jacobsen, G. P. Huffman

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

146 Scopus citations

Abstract

Diesel soot was investigated with electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS). The EELS spectra were obtained in connection with transmission electron microscopy studies, whereas the NEXAFS were obtained from a scanning transmission X-ray microscope (STXM) and from a conventional NEXAFS beamline at two synchrotron facilities. The X-ray absorption spectra show molecular species, aliphatics, such as carboxyl, and C-H bonds, which are not visible in EELS spectra of the same material. In particular, EELS fails to detect surface-functional groups, which can be detected with NEXAFS. Since numerous works on molecular carbon structure determined with TEM-EELS have been published, it is possible that these results have to be reassessed.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)117-124
Number of pages8
JournalCarbon
Volume43
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2005

Funding

We are grateful to K.E. Kelly (University of Utah) for providing us with the soot samples. Financial support by the National Science Foundation, Grant # CHE-0891333 is gratefully acknowledged. Data taken using the X-1A STXM developed by the group of J. Kirz and C. Jacobsen at SUNY Stony Brook [16,17] , with support from the Office of Biological and Environmental Research, U.S. DOE under contract DE-FG02-89ER60858, and the NSF under grant DBI-9605045. Zone plates were developed by S. Spector and C. Jacobsen of Stony Brook and D. Tennant of Lucent Technologies Bell Labs [18] , with support from the NSF under grant ECS-9510499. NSLS is operated by the SUNY for the U.S. Dept. of Energy, Contract # DE-AC02-76CH-00016. The Advanced Light Source is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Keywords

  • A. Soot
  • B. Combustion
  • C. Electron energy loss spectroscopy
  • D. Functional groups

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Materials Science

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