PNNL

Abstract

XPS and other surface sensitive methods are being increasingly used to extract quantitative information about organic and inorganic coatings and contamination on nanoparticles. The extraction of coating thickness information requires combining known information about particle diameter from other measurements, such as electron microscopy, combined with a model that includes the physical processes associated with XPS, including electron path lengths, and particle geometry. Advantages of using XPS include the sensitivity to very thin coatings (or surface contamination) and the abillity to extract important information about organic layers. Single particle information from electron microsocpy combined XPS sensitivity to determine an average coating structure and composition make a powerful combination for nanoparticle anlaysis.