Surface analysis for the investigation of electrochemical and corrosion systems

Abstract

The use of the surface analysis in investigating electrochemical and corrosion systems is discussed. In particular x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) in both the core and valence band region are described. Examples are given for metallic and carbon fiber electrode systems, and the role of core XPS chemical shifts analyzed by curve fitting is demonstrated. Valence band XPS is shown to have the ability to probe subtle differences in chemical structure, and is more effective in this respect than core XPS. Unfortunately, since all compounds posses valence electrons, the spectra contain features that cannot readily be interpreted without the help of reliable calculations. Examples illustrates how X-alpha cluster and other calculations can be used to interpret such spectra, allowing subtle chemical differences to be detected and thus enabling the approach to be used as a sensitive analytical surface chemistry probe. New X a and ab initio calculations for the valence band of tetragonal ZrO 2 are presented.