You are cordially invited to attend the seminar organized by the Department of Chemistry.
Title: X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS): Importance, Challenges and Significant Opportunities
Speaker: Dr. Donald Baer (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), USA)
Date: 23 September, Wednesday
Time: 15:30
Location: C-Blok Anfi
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS): Importance, Challenges, and Significant Opportunities
Abstract: The development of surface sensitive tools such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) contributed to what has been described as a modern scientific revolution, altering how we think about surfaces and interfaces. This information was critical to the development of modern electronic materials and is important to nanomaterials, energy storage and other advanced materials, and increasingly, environmental and biological systems. The use of XPS, based on citations in literature, continues to grow at an exponential rate and has become the most widely used surface analysis tool. Instruments are now robust and capable of providing highly reliable and reproducible measurements. XPS is increasingly used, and sometimes misused, by a new generation of less experienced analysts as well as “causal” users from outside of the surface analysis community. Because of the frequency of XPS data throughout the scientific literature, it is useful to most scientists to have some knowledge of the information XPS can provide and how to recognize problematic data. This presentation will i) discuss why XPS is such a valuable tool, ii) show examples of errors often appearing in the literature – many of which do not require XPS expertise to recognize, iii) describe the multiple efforts by the surface analysis community to provide standards, guides, websites and tutorials to assist new and casual XPS users in producing correct useful data and iv) summarize some of the alternative, underused, analysis methods and experimental designs that enable XPS to provide unique information, beyond surface composition and chemistry, about materials and their near surface properties that is often not available in other ways.
Short Biography
Donald Baer is Laboratory Fellow emeritus at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland WA, USA, where he specialized in the use of surface sensitive techniques to study material surfaces impacting energy and environmentally relevant systems. He has more than 300 publications. His most recent research focused on understanding reactive properties of nanoparticles in a variety of environments. Since retiring he has worked to address issues related to reliability and repeatability in surface analysis methods. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, ASTM International, and the American Vacuum Society and served as secretary of the Washington State Academy of Sciences. Dr. Baer holds a BS degree in Physics from Carnegie Mellon University and a PhD in Physics from Cornell University. He has received the Albert Nerken Award from the American Vacuum Society, the John Rivière Prize from the United Kingdom Surface Analysis Forum, and a Microscopy Today Innovation Award.