Eur. Phys. J. B 46, 441-447 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00268-2

Evaluation of hydrogen chemisorption in nanostructured carbon films by near edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy

¹ Istituto di Fisiologia Generale e Chimica Biologica, Università di Milano, via Trentacoste 2, 20134 Milano, Italy
² Centro Interdisciplinare Materiali e Interfacce Nanostrutturati (CIMAINA), Università di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Matematica, Università di Milano, via Saldini 50, 20133 Milano, Italy
⁴ Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Milano, Via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a cristina.lenardi@mi.infn.it

Received: 8 February 2005
Revised: 18 May 2005
Published online: 18 August 2005

Abstract

We have developed a method for the quantitative evaluation of the chemisorbed fraction of hydrogen in nanostructured carbon films using Near Edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (NEXAFS). In the carbon K-edge spectrum the peak related to carbon bonded to hydrogen is assumed to be correlated with the amount of hydrogen bonded to carbon. This assumption is supported by a comparative analysis of gas-phase hydrocarbons obtained via Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS). We applied the method to nanostructured carbon (ns-C) films synthesized by supersonic cluster beam deposition. The evaluated quantity of chemisorbed hydrogen in different samples exposed to molecular hydrogen (pressure of 0.12 MPa, for 3 hours at room temperature) is wt.%.