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Due to their favorable properties and high porosity, zeolitic imidazolate frameworks (ZIFs) have recently received much limelight for key technologies such as energy storage, optoelectronics, sensorics, and catalysis. Despite widespread interest in these materials, fundamental questions regarding the zinc coordination environment remain poorly understood. By focusing on zinc(II)2-methylimidazolate (ZIF-8) and its tetrahedrally coordinated analogues with Br-, Cl-, and H-substitution in the 2-ring position, we aim to clarify how variations in the local environment of Zn impact the charge distribution and the electronic properties of these materials. Our results from densityfunctional theory confirm the presence of a Zn coordinative bond with a large polarization that is quantitatively affected by different substituents on the organic ligand. Moreover, our findings suggest that the variations in the Zn coordination induced by the functionalization have a negligible effect on the electronic structure of the considered compounds. On the other hand, halogen terminations of the ligands lead to distinct electronic contributions in the vicinity of the frontier region which ultimately reduce the band gap size by a few hundred millielectron volts. Experimental results obtained from X-ray absorption spectroscopy (Zn K-edge) confirm the trends predicted by theory and, together with them, contribute to a better understanding of the structure−property relationships that are needed to tailor ZIFs for target applications.
The X-ray-induced sample damage during mono XPS analysis of an oxygen-plasma-oxidized and subsequently wet-chemically reduced poly(propylene) film was investigated as a showcase for plasma-modified or plasma-deposited samples. By doing this, the degradation index approach as introduced by Beamson and Briggs in the Scienta ESCA300 high-resolution XPS database of organic polymers has been adopted. As to be expected, the sample degrades by loosing oxygen as revealed by observation of decreasing O/C and COR/Csum ratios. However, the X-ray degradation indices are definitely higher than those of conventional reference polymers. Moreover, the COR/Csum degradation index is significantly higher in comparison with one obtained for the O/C ratio. In that context, there is no difference between the plasma sample and a conventional poly(vinyl alcohol) polymer. It is concluded that for reliable quantitative surface chemical analysis, the quality of spectra in terms of acquisition times must be optimized aimed to a minimization of X-ray degradation. Finally, it is proposed to describe the photon flux of an X-ray gun in an XPS experiment, which defines the degradation rate at the end, by using the sample current simply measured with a carefully grounded sputter-cleaned reference silver sample.
Two different radical polymerization techniques have been applied to covalently graft vinylformamide (VFA) onto silica particles. Grafting by the polymerization of VFA using an immobilized azo initiator on silica has been found less effective, because monomer conversion is limited in non-aqueous solvents and grafting yields are low in water. Radical copolymerization of VFA with vinyltriethoxysilane (VTS)-functionalized silica particles is suitable to produce poly(vinylformamide) (PVFA) silica hybrid particles in respectable yield. The VFA/VTS-silica ratio determines the degree of grafting. The PVFA-VTS-co-grafted silica particles can be acidically hydrolyzed into poly(vinylamine)-grafted silica particles. Molecular structures of the surface groups and grafted polymer chains have been confirmed by means of solid state 13C{1H} cross-polarization magic-angle spinning (CP MAS) NMR spectroscopy. Zeta potential measurements show the altering of the former silica particles surface charges arising from the introduction of basic groups on the surface.
Noble metal-free nanoparticles (NPs) based on multi-principal element alloys (MPEAs) were synthesized using a one-step pulsed laser ablation in liquids (PLALs) method for the electrochemical reduction of CO2. Laser ablation was performed in pure water or poly-(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC)-containing an aqueous solution of Al8Cr17Co17Cu8Fe17Ni33 MPEA targets. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements combined with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping were used to characterize the structure and composition of the laser-generated MPEA nanoparticles (MPEA-NPs). These results confirmed the presence of a characteristic elemental distribution of a core-shell phase structure as the predominant NP species. The electrocatalytic performance of the laser-generated MPEA-NPs was characterized by linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) demonstrating an enhanced electrocatalytic CO2 activity for PDADMAC-stabilized NPs. The findings of these investigations indicate that MPEAs have great potential to replace conventional, expensive noble metal electrocatalysts.
Ellipsometry is a matured experimental method, whose roots reach back into the early phase of modern optics itself. It is often attributed to be invented by Paul Drude in the last decade of the 19th century, but similar techniques had already been applied for years before Drude started his work. With this Special Issue about ellipsometry and related techniques, we hope to bring more attention to this method and advance and propagate it to be used by a broader community. We have collected a good mixture of articles: some texts are more in the line of users’ tutorial and best practice guides; others are intended to show recent developments of the method. With this collection, we also hope to show the generally rapidly expanding possibilities of ellipsometry and polarimetry to draw attention of new users and previously unrelated communities to this valuable tool.