Probing the local environment in potassium salts and potassium-promoted catalysts by potassium valence-to-core X-ray emission spectroscopy

we perform a systematic calibration study on a series of potassium salts in order to establish the information content of Kβ and VtC XES. The sensitivity of the K VtC XES to ligand identity and potassium-ligand distance is established. Our experimental results are correlated to density functional theory (DFT) calculations in order to more quantitatively assess the spectral changes. The potential of K VtC XES for future studies in chemical catalysis is highlighted through application of this method to a potassium-promoted iron ammonia synthesis catalyst.

本研究对一系列钾盐进行了系统校准研究，旨在确立Kβ和VtC XES的信息含量。钾VtC XES对配体身份和钾-配体距离的敏感性得以确立。通过将实验结果与密度泛函理论（DFT）计算相关联，以更定量地评估光谱变化。此外，通过将此方法应用于钾催化的铁氨合成催化剂，突显了钾VtC XES在化学催化未来研究中的潜力。