Study of electro-chemical properties of metal-oxide interfaces using a newly constructed ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy endstation

In this report, we briefly describe the general design principles and construction of a newly developed ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy system. This system provides an imaging mode with < 20 mu m spatial resolution in one dimension as well as an angle-resolved mode. The new imaging mode enables us to study structured surfaces under catalytically and environmentally relevant conditions. To illustrate this capability, in situ studies on a Au-SiO2 heterojunction and Rh-TiO2 metal-support system are presented. This new system can probe structured surfaces near ambient pressure as a function of temperature, pressure, electrical potential, local position, and time. It is a valuable in situ tool to detect material transformations at the micrometer scale. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.The ALS and the Molecular Foundry are supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11 231. M.E.G. would like to thank the support of the ALS Postdoctoral Fellowship program. M.E.G, Y.P.H, and B.S.M. would like to thank the support from the Research Fund of HYU (HYU-2010-T)