Since many decades X-ray excited Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) or Electron Spectroscopy for Chemical Analysis (ESCA) is a well-accepted standard method for non-destructive chemical analysis of solid surfaces. Over the last years it has been possible to develop XPS instrumentation, that can work far beyond the standard conditions of high or ultrahigh vacuum: Near Ambient Pressure (NAP)-XPS, or ESCA under environmental conditions has become a method, that enters the field of standard surface chemical analysis and thus also the industrial sector. The main reason for this is the extremely fast solid surface analysis of any (degassing or non-degassing) material. Furthermore the environmental conditions around the sample avoid strong surface degradation due to vacuum or photon stimulated desorption. Even during the analysis the sample stays under its equilibrium conditions. Last, but not least the surrounding gas pressures of a couple of mbar acts as built-in charge neutralization on any type of material. This Environmental Charge Compensation (ECC) also decreases the negative influences of the characterization on the sample constitution. All this considered, NAP-XPS is capable of true non-destructive high throughput analysis of sample surfaces. The influence of the ambient conditions on quantification in XPS will be demonstrated and discussed.

After a short summary of the relevant development steps in NAP-XPS instrumentation over the last forty years, this presentation summarizes results of surface chemical analysis on insulating polymer samples, showing the spectroscopic resolution for C1s, F1s and O1s emission lines as a comparison for PET and PTFE. Using this, the application of ECC to bulk insulators (polymeric materials, ceramics), food samples, pharmaceuticals, and different biological materials is demonstrated. The unique ability to measure liquids, like water or aqueous solutions allow for studies of drying processes of liquid containing materials, like paper or absorber materials and finally also opens the field to medical applications, especially to studies of drug uptake into gram-negative bacteria embedded in biofilms.

The last part summarizes methods to analyze materials and device under working conditions. As examples reduction and reoxidation of catalytically active compounds and operando electrochemistry will be presented. An outlook to future industrial applications will be given.

Advances in materials chemistry have increased the need for deep understanding of process-material interactions and their role in device or component longevity. In the medical device industry advances are due in part to operating in a federally regulated environment where it may be necessary to understand not only what is the surface chemistry, but how various chemistries interact with the body, what is clean, or where does a foreign material originate. This presentation will highlight case studies where microscopy and surface characterization techniques were successfully applied to help further understand materials performance and interactions with the body.

Polymers used in the medical industry often undergo numerous clinical trials, laboratory testing, and development to understand the body and polymer interactions. The interactions these materials often undergo may potentially be at odds with the bulk material properties. For example, it may be desirable to modify surface properties of PTFE for polymer adhesion or modify a surface chemistry to improve bio compatibility. Methods of polymer surface modification will be presented that either enable or hinder the adhesion of a material to the surface.

Lithium ions generated during battery discharge may undergo interactions with components in or near the battery forming chemistries that may degrade battery performance or material stability. For example, lithium ions are known to interact with silica containing glass to form lithium silicide. The formation of these silicides can degrade the hermetic seal of feedthroughs. One method of studying these interactions is in-situ interfacial reactions characterization. This facile method of generating ions in-situ can be leveraged to understand what reactions may occur at a substrate surface.

The application of surface characterization techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Time of Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) provide unique insights into surface modifications and can help ensure the reliability of medical devices. These techniques support the development and manufacturing of Medtronic products such as packing and perfusion devices to improve processing conditions, understand failure modes, and surface-tissue interactions.

Green production of hydrogen will be an important building block in the transition to a carbon-balanced economy and could be realized by electrolytic water splitting powered by cheap renewable energy sources. Water electrolysis is currently limited by the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and development of the associated catalysts is proceeding slowly, mainly due to missing descriptors for activity and stability of working OER catalysts. Herein, we contribute to that emerging field with in situ XPS and NEXAFS on iridium anodes. In our in situ cell the catalyst is probed through a graphene layer, which traps an electrolyte layer around the catalyst and provides electrical contact for separated iridium nanoparticles. In this way we enhance spectroscopic signal from the active surface relative to the bulk of the catalyst and reduce mass transport problems. In taking advantage of these benefits, we found that the two well-known oxidation waves occurring before the OER onset are connected to the development of two different types of electron deficient oxygen species, which are bound to one (µ₁) or two (µ₂) iridium atoms. It appears that oxygen is not only a “non-innocent ligand”, but rather a protagonist in the catalysis of the OER.

During the electrochemical reduction of oxygen, platinum catalysts are often (partially) oxidized. While these platinum oxides are thought to play a crucial role in fuel cell degradation, their nature remains unclear. We studied the electrochemical oxidation of Pt nanoparticles using in situ XPS. By sandwiching the particles between a graphene sheet and a proton exchange membrane that is wetted from the rear, a confined electrolyte layer was formed, allowing us to probe the catalyst under wet electrochemical conditions. We show that the behavior at the onset of Pt oxidation is influenced by the choice of proton exchange membrane, yet universally involves PtO₂ formation. The oxidation process is fast: even bulk oxide growth occurs on the sub-minute timescale. Thus, our observations indicate that PtO₂ may take part in the transient processes that dominate Pt electrode degradation.

Alcohol oxidation reaction over platinum nanoparticles with size ranging from 2 to 8 nm deposited on mesoporous silica MCF-17 was studied in the gas and liquid phases. Among methanol, ethanol, 2-propanol, and 2-butanol oxidations, the turnover frequency increased as the nanoparticle size became large in both reaction phases. The activation energy in the gas phase was higher than that in the liquid phase. Water co-adsorption decreased the turnover rate of all the gas and liquid phase oxidations except for the gas-phase 2-butanol case, while certain amount of water promoted 2-propanol oxidation in the liquid phase. Sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG) study and DFT calculation revealed that the alcohol molecules pack horizontally on the metal surface in low concentration and stand up in high concentration, which affects the dissociation of b-hydrogen of the alcohol as the critical step in alcohol oxidation.

Ice surfaces have water layers with thickness ranging from one monolayer at 100K to 30 layers of 273K. At the interfaces of two ice cubes, ice layers grow at the disappearing water interfaces (regelation). SFG studies of water surfaces show three peaks in the vibrational spectrum; “free OH^-”, liquid like hydrogen bonded water, with half bilayer termination, and ice-like water, with bilayer termination, with more hydrogen bonds.

Most nanocatalysts are composed of highly dispersed transition metal nanoparticles on oxides. The interface between the metal nanoparticles and the oxides plays a crucial role in determining the catalytic performance of nanocatalysts. Due to non-adiabatic electronic excitation, energetic electrons in metals can be generated during exothermic chemical processes. The energy barrier formed at the metal-oxide interfaces leads to the irreversible transport of energetic, or hot, electrons. The dopants and impurities present on the oxides can generate additional charge carriers or oxygen vacancies that affect the catalytic activity. The accumulations or depletion of hot electrons on the metal nanoparticles, in turn, can also influence the catalytic reactions. In this talk, we outline recent studies of the role of metal oxide interfaces and characteristics of fast charge transfer between metals and oxides that lead to ionization of molecules at the interface. The molecular ions produce so-called acid-base reactions. The electronic configuration of metal-oxide nanocatalysts during catalytic reactions will be introduced and its influence on heterogeneous catalysis will be outlined.

Reaction processes on metal surfaces under gas environment have been investigated in various research fields such as catalysis, gas sensing, and many more. Palladium is a well–known material which is used for hydrogen storage, hydrogen sensing, and exhaust catalysis. Therefore, the phase transition of palladium in hydrogen or oxygen has been extensively investigated by means of environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM). However, the oxidation and reduction process of palladium surface at the atomic scale remain poorly understood.

Here, we investigated the surface structure of a wedge–shaped palladium specimen in both hydrogen and oxygen by means of in-situ atomic resolution ETEM. Under ambient condition the surface of palladium is oxidized by several nanometers. After introducing hydrogen (100 Pa) in ETEM, the native oxide layer (PdO) was reduced to metallic fcc palladium even at room temperature. After exposure and exhaustion of hydrogen, we introduced oxygen (100 Pa) in ETEM. The palladium oxide was reproduced and the ETEM results show that the oxidation started from step edges and terraces and proceeded until the palladium surface was completely covered by the palladium oxide.

We also show that oxidation of palladium is dependent on the history of hydrogen exposure. When the duration of hydrogen exposure was over 90 min., we found that the surface was not oxidized. This was not due to bulk hydrogenation as demonstrated by our electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) results. We performed similar studies for the surface of platinum in oxygen after prolonged hydrogen exposure. However in platinum, the oxidation of the surface was not suppressed. This suggests that the process for suppression of oxidation, after prolonged hydrogen exposure, exists for palladium and not for platinum.

From these results, we hypothesize possible processes that explain how the prolonged hydrogen exposure suppresses the oxidation of palladium surface. We will also present atomic-scale in-situ movies on the surface dynamics in palladium and platinum in various processing.