33.20.Rm X-ray spectra
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Fulminic acid, HCNO, was first synthesized in the year 1800 and has since then been used numerous times to develop new chemical theories and concepts. Nowadays, research on HCNO is mainly motivated due to its detection in interstellar space in the year 2009. In this thesis, we investigated the interaction of fulminic acid with VUV- and soft X-ray radiation, i.e., radiation that is also present in the interstellar medium. In our study using VUV radiation, we were able to record the photoelectron spectrum of HCNO with high resolution and we were able to simulate the Renner-Teller distorted ground state of the cation using simulation of wavepacket dynamics. We also elucidated the mechanism of the dissociative photoionisation up to 15.3 eV binding energy. Using soft X-ray radiation enables us to ionise or excite the 1s electrons of HCNO. The created state can decay via an Auger-Meitner process, which produces an Auger electron. We measured the kinetic energy of these auger electron and were able to analyse the observed signals using quantum chemical calculations. We also investigated how the ion fragments after the Auger-Meitner process. We observed a site-selectivity, where the initial ionisation/excitation site influenced the product distribution. We were able to explain this observation with a simple thermodynamic argument. This thesis provides a comprehensive description of the interaction of HCNO with ionising radiation. The obtained data may be valuable for the description of the behaviour of HCNO in interstellar space.
This thesis focuses on the investigation of the electronic structure of amino acids and
salts in aqueous solution using X-ray spectroscopic methods. Both material groups are
of fundamental importance with regards to many physiological reactions, especially
for the Hofmeister effect which describes the solubility of proteins in salt solutions.
Hence, the investigation of the electronic structure of amino acids and the influence of
ions on the hydrogen bonding network of liquid water are important milestones to a
deeper understanding of the Hofmeister series.
Besides investigating the electronic structure of amino acids in aqueous solution,
the spectra were used to develop a building block model of the spectral fingerprints of
the functional groups and were compared to spectral signatures of suitable reference
molecules. In the framework of this thesis, it is shown that the building block approach
is a useful tool with allows the interpretation of spectral signatures of considerably
more complex molecules
In this work, the focus lies on the investigation of the occupied and unoccupied
electronic states of molecules in solid state, as well as in aqueous solution. Hereby,
different X-ray spectroscopic methods were applied. X-ray emission spectroscopy
(XES) was used to probe the occupied electronic structure of the solution, while the
unoccupied electronic structure was addressed by using X-ray absorption spectroscopy
(XAS). Finally, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) as a combination of XAS
and XES measurements provides the combined information about the unoccupied and
occupied molecular levels. The element specific character of the three measurement
methods is a feature which allows the investigation of the local electronic structure of
a single functional group. With RIXS, also non-equivalent atoms of the same element
can be addressed separately.
Within this thesis firstly, a library of the XE spectra of all 20 proteinogenic amino
acids in zwitterionic form is presented. From this sample-set XES fingerprints of
the protonated alpha-amino group NH3+ and the deprotonated carboxylic group COO- were evaluated and used to identify the XES fingerprints of the nitrogen and oxygen
containing functional groups of the side chains of the amino acids. The data is discussed
based on a building block approach. Furthermore, the XE spectra of the functional
groups of lysine and histidine, namely the NH2 group and the C3N2H4 ring structure,
are both compared to XE spectra of suitable reference molecules (imidazole, ammonia
and methylamine). It is found that the XE and RIXS spectra of the side chains of lysine
and histidine show large similarities to the XE spectra of the reference molecules. This
agreement in the XE and RIXS spectra allows a qualitative investigation of XE and
RIXS spectra of more complex amino acids using the XE and RIXS spectra of suitable
reference molecules.
The chemical structure of histidine and proline is quite different from the structures
of the other proteinogenic amino acids. Due to the unique chemical structure of
the side chain which in both cases consists of a heterocyclic ring structure, these two
amino acids were investigated in more detail. Zubavichus et al. [1] have shown that
amino acids are decomposing while exposed to X-ray radiation of the experiment. The
damage is irreversible and molecular fragments can adsorb on the membrane of the
experimental setup. This contamination can also create a spectral signature which
then overlaps with the signal of the solution and which complicates the interpretation
of the data. To record spectra which are free from contributions of adsorbed molecular
fragments on the membrane, the adsorption behavior was investigated.
In contrast to the solid phase in which the amino acids are present as salts in one
electronic conformation, the charge state of the amino acids can be manipulated in
aqueous solution by tuning the pH-value. By doing this, all possible charge states are
accessible (cation, anion, zwitterion). In this work it is shown that also the spectra
of the different charge states can be modeled by the spectra of suitable reference
molecules using the building block approach. The spectral changes occurring upon
protonation and deprotonation of the functional groups are explored and verified by
comparing them to theoretical calculations.
The comparison with measurements of pyrrolidine show that the electronic structure
which surrounds the nitrogen atom of proline is strongly influenced by the
ring structure of the side chain. Furthermore, the proline, pyrrolidine, and histidine
molecules are also degrading during the liquid sample measurements. This can be
observed by the detection of a new spectral component which increases with the
measurement time originating from the window membrane. In all cases, the speed of
the agglomeration of molecular fragments at the membrane was observed to be highly
sensitive to the pH value of the solution.
To understand the Hofmeister series, also the impact of the salt ions have to be
investigated. In this study the influence of potassium chloride (KCl) on the hydrogen
bond network of water was studied by using non-resonantly excited XES as well as
RIXS. A decreased dissociation of hydrogen molecules and changes in the molecular
vibrations could be detected. These changes were interpreted with a molecular
reorganization of the water molecules and a decreased number of hydrogen bonds.
In the context of this thesis, the novel method soft X-ray energy-dispersive NEXAFS spectroscopy was explored and utilized to investigate intermolecular coupling and post-growth processes with a temporal resolution of seconds. 1,4,5,8- naphthalene tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride (NTCDA)multilayer films were the chosen model system for these investigations. The core hole-electron correlation in coherently coupled molecules was studied by means of energy-dispersive near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy. A transient phase was found which exists during the transition between a disordered condensed phase and the bulk structure. This phase is characterized by distinct changes in the spectral line shape and energetic position of the X-ray absorption signal at the C K-edge. The findings were explained with the help of theoretical models based on the coupling of transition dipole moments, which are well established for optically excited systems. In consequence, the experimental results provides evidence for a core hole-electron pair delocalized over several molecules. Furthermore, the structure formation of NTCDA multilayer films on Ag(111) surfaces was investigated. With time-resolved and energy-dispersive NEXAFS experiments the intensity evolution in s- and p-polarization showed a very characteristic behavior. By combining these findings with the results of time-dependent photoemission measurements, several sub-processes were identified in the post- growth behavior. Upon annealing, the amorphous but preferentially flat-lying molecules flip into an upright orientation. After that follows a phase characterized by strong intermolecular coupling. Finally, three-dimensional islands are established. Employing the Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami model, the activation energies of the sub-processes were determined.