TY - JOUR A1 - Ehlert, Christopher A1 - Kröner, D. A1 - Saalfrank, P. T1 - A combined quantum chemical/molecular dynamics study of X-rayphotoelectron spectra of polyvinyl alcohol using oligomer models T2 - Journal of Electron Spectroscopy and Related Phenomena N2 - X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a powerful tool for probing the local chemical environment ofatoms near surfaces. When applied to soft matter, such as polymers, XPS spectra are frequently shifted andbroadened due to thermal atom motion and by interchain interactions. We present a combined quantummechanical QM/molecular dynamics (MD) simulation of X-ray photoelectron spectra of polyvinyl alcohol(PVA) using oligomer models in order to account for and quantify these effects on the XPS (C1s) signal. Inour study, molecular dynamics at finite temperature were performed with a classical forcefield and by abinitio MD (AIMD) using the Car–Parrinello method. Snapshots along the trajectories represent possibleconformers and/or neighbouring environments, with different C1s ionization potentials for individualC atoms leading to broadened XPS peaks. The latter are determined by Δ-Kohn Sham calculations. Wealso examine the experimental practice of gauging XPS (C1s) signals of alkylic C-atoms in C-containingpolymers to the C1s signal of polyethylene. We find that (i) the experimental XPS (C1s) spectra of PVA (position and width) can be roughly repre-sented by single-strand models, (ii) interchain interactions lead to red-shifts of the XPS peaks by about0.6 eV, and (iii) AIMD simulations match the findings from classical MD semi-quantitatively. Further, (iv)the gauging procedure of XPS (C1s) signals to the values of PE, introduces errors of about 0.5 eV. PB - Elsevier B.V. KW - XPS KW - Quantummechanical molecular dynamics simulation KW - Polyvinyl alcohol PY - 2015 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/39290 AN - OPUS4-39290 SN - 0368-2048 VL - 199 SP - 38 EP - 45 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany