High-resolution X-ray Raman Spectroscopy Research Articles

Disentangling the chemistry of Australian plant exudates from a unique historical collection

For thousands of years, the unique physicochemical properties of plant exudates have defined uses in material culture and practical applications. Native Australian plant exudates, including resins, kinos, and gums, have been used and continue to be used by Aboriginal Australians for numerous technical and cultural purposes. A historic collection of well-preserved native Australian plant exudates, assembled a century ago by plant naturalists, gives a rare window into the history and chemical composition of these materials. Here we report the full hierarchical characterization of four genera from this collection, Xanthorrhoea, Callitris, Eucalyptus, and Acacia, from the local elemental speciation, to functional groups and main molecular markers. We use high-resolution X-ray Raman spectroscopy (XRS) to achieve bulk-sensitive chemical speciation of these plant exudates, including insoluble, amorphous, and cross-linked fractions, without the limitation of invasive and/or surface specific methods. Combinatorial testing of the XRS data allows direct classification of these complex natural species as terpenoid, aromatic, phenolic, and polysaccharide materials. Differences in intragenera chemistry was evidenced by detailed interpretation of the XRS spectral features. We complement XRS with Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS), and pyrolysis–GC-MS (Py-GC-MS). This multimodal approach provides a fundamental understanding of the chemistry of these natural materials long used by Aboriginal Australian peoples.

Finite temperature effects on the X-ray absorption spectra of lithium compounds: first-principles interpretation of X-ray Raman measurements.

We elucidate the role of room-temperature-induced instantaneous structural distortions in the Li K-edge X-ray absorption spectra (XAS) of crystalline LiF, Li2SO4, Li2O, Li3N, and Li2CO3 using high resolution X-ray Raman spectroscopy (XRS) measurements and first-principles density functional theory calculations within the eXcited electron and Core Hole approach. Based on thermodynamic sampling via ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, we find calculated XAS in much better agreement with experiment than those computed using the rigid crystal structure alone. We show that local instantaneous distortion of the atomic lattice perturbs the symmetry of the Li 1s core-excited-state electronic structure, broadening spectral line-shapes and, in some cases, producing additional spectral features. The excellent agreement with high-resolution XRS measurements validates the accuracy of our first-principles approach to simulating XAS, and provides both accurate benchmarks for model compounds and a predictive theoretical capability for identification and characterization of multi-component systems, such as lithium-ion batteries, under working conditions.