In situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of electrochemically active solid-gas and solid-liquid interfaces

In this account the application of synchrotron radiation based X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) for the investigation of electrochemically active gas-solid and liquid-solid interfaces will be discussed. The potential of Near Ambient Pressure XPS (NAP-XPS) for the estimation of the surface electronic structure of electrochemically active interfaces will be described by two examples. Thereto the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) over Pt and IrO_x anodes will be introduced. In particular the analysis of XP core level spectra of IrO_x requires the development of an appropriate fit model. Furthermore the design of reaction cells based on proton exchange membranes (PEM) and on electron transparent graphene membranes, which enables the investigation of liquid-gas and liquid-solid interfaces under electrochemical relevant conditions will be discussed. In the last part of this article a perspective to the EMIL project at the synchrotron radiation facility BESSY will be given. The purpose of this project is the implementation of two new beamlines enabling X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in the X-ray regime from 80 eV–8 keV under reaction conditions. The extension to the so called tender X-ray regime will allow the release of higher kinetic energy photoelectrons which have a higher inelastic mean free path compared to photoelectrons excited by soft X-ray radiation and therefore will enable the investigation of solid-liquid interfaces under electrochemical reaction conditions.