Hydrogen has no core electrons, so for that reason XPS is generally weak on this element.

Having said that, hydrogen's counterelement (usually oxygen) are affected when hydrogen takes away some of their electron density and that can be used:

Article Core Level Spectroscopies Locate Hydrogen in the Proton Tran...

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), also known as Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA), is a surface-sensitive technique that provides information about the elemental composition, chemical state, and electronic state of materials. While XPS is a powerful tool for studying chemical bonding, it has limitations in directly detecting hydrogen bonds.

XPS primarily detects photoelectrons emitted from core-level electrons (typically electrons from the inner shells, such as the 1s, 2s, and 2p levels) that are ejected when a material is irradiated with X-rays. The information obtained is related to the electronic structure of the atoms within the top few nanometers of the material's surface.

Hydrogen bonds involve interactions between hydrogen atoms and electronegative atoms (e.g., oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine) in neighboring molecules. These interactions typically involve outer-shell electrons, which are not directly probed by XPS.

However, XPS can indirectly provide information about the presence of hydrogen bonds by analyzing changes in the chemical environment of atoms involved in these bonds. For example:

It's important to note that while XPS is informative about certain aspects of chemical bonding, it is not a technique specifically designed to directly probe intermolecular interactions like hydrogen bonding. Techniques such as infrared spectroscopy (IR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy are more commonly used for studying hydrogen bonds due to their sensitivity to vibrational and magnetic properties, respectively.

In summary, XPS can provide indirect information about the effects of hydrogen bonding on the chemical environment of atoms, but it is not a direct probe of hydrogen bonds themselves.X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a surface-sensitive technique that can be used to analyze the chemical composition of a material. However, hydrogen and helium are essentially impossible to detect by a lab-based XPS 1 2. This is because hydrogen has no core electrons, and therefore, core electron XPS is impossible. The H 1s electrons are valence electrons and participate in chemical bonding. Any signal from hydrogen would overlap with signals from excitation of valence electrons from other surface atoms 3.

I hope this information helps! Let me know if you have any other questions.

1: Chemistry LibreTexts 2: XPS Fitting 3: ResearchGate

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Analytical_Chemistry/Physical_Methods_in_Chemistry_and_Nano_Science_%28Barron%29/04%3A_Chemical_Speciation/4.09%3A_X-ray_Photoelectron_Spectroscopy

https://www.xpsfitting.com/2013/05/hydrogen-and-helium.html

If I were you I would use ATR-FTIR for that purpose. Cheaper, simpler, more direct information.

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) is a surface-sensitive analytical technique that provides information about the elemental composition and chemical state of a material. While XPS can provide valuable insights into the bonding environment of atoms on a material's surface, it is not well-suited for directly detecting hydrogen bonds.

Hydrogen bonds involve a relatively weak interaction between a hydrogen atom bonded to an electronegative atom (such as oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine) and another electronegative atom. XPS primarily provides information about the core-level electronic structure of elements, including their binding energies and chemical states.

The information obtained from XPS is typically related to the chemical environment of individual elements rather than the specific nature of hydrogen bonding interactions. Techniques such as infrared spectroscopy (IR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), and neutron diffraction are more commonly used for directly studying hydrogen bonding in materials.

In summary, XPS is a powerful tool for surface analysis and can reveal valuable information about the chemical composition and states of elements on a material's surface, but it is not the most suitable technique for directly detecting hydrogen bonds. Researchers typically use complementary techniques that are more sensitive to the structural aspects of hydrogen bonding for a detailed understanding of these interactions.According to my search results, hydrogen and helium are essentially impossible to detect by a lab-based XPS 1 https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Analytical_Chemistry/Physical_Methods_in_Chemistry_and_Nano_Science_%28Barron%29/04%3A_Chemical_Speciation/4.09%3A_X-ray_Photoelectron_Spectroscopy2 https://www.xpsfitting.com/2013/05/hydrogen-and-helium.html3chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://subsite.harwellxps.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/HarwellXPS_TechNote_05.pdf . While there are some cases where XPS peak shifts have been attributed to hydrogen bonding, it seems that there are no general statements in the literature for describing hydrogen-containing compounds 4.chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.materialinterface.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/H-in-XPS-Matl-Interface.pdf

I hope this helps!

Trung Thành Anthony Gyorgy Banhegyi Jürgen Weippert

Thanks for your reply!