Quantum-chemical investigation of the application of electron spectroscopy for identification of the nature of acidic and basic sites on a surface

Abstract

This paper presents quantum-chemical calculations for the electron absorption spectra of p-aminoazobenzene (p-AAB) and its compounds with active surface sites (protons, water molecules, hydroxyl groups, aquacompounds of exchanged cations, and lewis acidic sites) to determine the applicability of electron spectroscopy for identifying the nature of acidic-basic sites. The most significant result of the analysis of the electron spectra of p-AAB and its complexes with different active surface sites is that the application of electrouspectroscopy does not typically allow one to distinguish between proton and aproton sites and, in some cases, between acidic and basic sites.