I have zeolites impregnated with different metal oxides for analysis with XPS. As we know, most publications use the C 1s for reference despite being demonstrated to be unreliable. I would like to also to use some other reference since the zeolite will contain coke, different C=O, C-H bonds that can significantly shift the C peak and make it practically useless for charge correction.
My question is if it would be feasible and scientifically correct to use the Si 2p for referencing, considering that it is chemically inert in the zeolite structure and no change is expected?
Maybe you could evaporate a little gold spot (or another inert metal) and use either its characteristic peaks or its Fermi energy cutoff as reference?
Your approach is definetely better than C1s peak BE scale calibration. Yes, You can do it quite reliably, but there will be a small problem if you would need to compare the positions of your peaks with literature or NIST, you might have certain descrepancies due non-standard calibration. The deviation of 0.1-0.2 eV as compared to literature may evolve due to calibration, but could be a reason of surface chemistry. I always double check how people adjust their BE scale. However, if you want to see the trends in your series of experiemnts then that should be absolutely OKay.
The best option, which is the one I have used many times, is to deposit (or evaporate) a small amount of gold in the sample holder on which the zeolite sample is deposited. The result is perfect.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Linguistics
- Composition Studies
- Publications