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The results of full study of X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) of spin-liquid candidate CuAl2O4 including the measurements of high-energy resolved core level (Cu , Al , O ), Cu LMM Auger and valence band spectra are presented. The comparison of obtained results with spectra of reference samples and specially performed density functional theory calculations has confirmed a finite Cu site-disorder in CuAl2O4, where about 30% of Cu2+ ions occupy the octahedral sites. Obtained valence band spectra can be used in further theoretical studies aimed on the investigation of electronic and magnetic properties of this mysterious ma-terial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and resonant x-ray emission spectroscopy measurements of pellet and thin film forms of TiO2 with implanted Fe ions are presented and discussed. The findings indicate that Fe-implantation in a TiO2 pellet sample induces heterovalent cation substitution (Fe2+→Ti4+) beneath the surface region. But in thin film samples, the clustering of Fe atoms is primarily detected. In addition to this, significant amounts of secondary phases of Fe3+ are detected on the surface of all doped samples due to oxygen exposure. These experimental findings are compared with density functional theory calculations of formation energies for different configurations of structural defects in the implanted TiO2:Fe system. According to our calculations, the clustering of Fe-atoms in TiO2:Fe thin films can be attributed to the formation of combined substitutional and interstitial defects. Further, the differences due to Fe doping in pellet and thin film samples can ultimately be attributed to different surface to volume ratios. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dilute magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) are a highly attractive field of research due to their potential to open new technological functionality. Here, we perform a systematic study of In2O3 thin films with dopant ions of Mn, Co, Ni, and Fe to investigate the unique interaction of each of these ions and their incorporation into the semiconductor lattice. We report substitutional positioning of Fe atoms into the In3+ site and a mixture of interstitial, metallic clustering, and substitutional positioning for Co, Mn, and Ni, discriminating between oxidation states for all dopant atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Directly measuring elementary electronic excitations in dopant 3d metals is essential to understanding how they function as part of their host material. Through calculated crystal field splittings of the 3d electron band it is shown how transition metals Mn, Fe, Co, and Ni are incorporated into SnO2. The crystal field splittings are compared to resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS) experiments, which measure precisely these elementary dd excitations. The origin of spectral features can be determined and identified via this comparison, leading to an increased understanding of how such dopant metals situate themselves in, and modify the host's electronic and magnetic properties; and also how each element differs when incorporated into other semiconducting materials. We found that oxygen vacancy formation must not occur at nearest neighbour sites to metal atoms, but instead must reside at least two coordination spheres beyond. The coordination of the dopants within the host can then be explicitly related to the d-electron configurations and energies. This approach facilitates an understanding of the essential link between local crystal coordination and electronic/magnetic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mechanochemical synthesis based on ball-milling of individual oxides was applied as a one-step preparation technique for CuO-CeO2 catalyst for preferential CO oxidation in H2 excess. The mechanical energy dose transferred to the original powder mixture determines both the catalyst composition and activity. It is found that after 90 min of milling (corresponding to a dose of 372 kJ mol–1), a mixture of 10 wt.% CuO-CeO2 powder exhibits a CO conversion of 97% at 423 K. Four active oxygen states, which are not observed in case of pure CeO2, were detected in the nanocomposite lattice and attributed to the presence of Cu in surface sites as well as in subsurface bulk sites of CeO2, in nearest neighbor and next nearest neighbor positions. Correspondingly, oxidation of CO to CO2 was found to occur in a two-stage process with Tmax = 395/460 K, and oxidation of H2 to H2O likewise in a four-stage process with Tmax = 426/448/468/516 K. The milled powder consists of CeO2 crystallites sized 8–10 nm agglomerated to somewhat larger aggregates, with CuO dispersed on the surface of the CeO2 crystallites, and to a lesser extent present as Cu2O. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and electronic structure calculations in the framework of the coherent potential approach show that impurity Fe3+ ions substituting In in iron-doped In2O3 indium oxide(III) are in a paramagnetic state in the absence of oxygen vacancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SnO2 and Mn-doped SnO2 single-phase tetragonal crystal structure quantum dots (QDs) of uniform size with control over dopant composition and microstructure were synthesized using the high pressure microwave synthesis technique. On a broader vision, we systematically investigated the influence of dilute Mn ions in SnO2 under the strong quantum confinement regime through various experimental techniques and density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations to disclose the physical mechanism governing the observed ferromagnetism. DFT calculations revealed that the formation of the stable (001) surface was much more energetically favorable than that of the (100) surface, and the formation energy of the oxygen vacancies in the stable (001) surface was comparatively higher in the undoped SnO2 QDs. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and first-principles modeling of doped QDs revealed that the lower doping concentration of Mn favored the formation of MnO-like (Mn2+) structures in defect-rich areas and the higher doping concentration of Mn led to the formation of multiple configurations of Mn (Mn2+ and Mn3+) in the stable surfaces of SnO2 QDs. Electronic absorption spectra indicated the characteristic spin allowed ligand field transitions of Mn2+ and Mn3+ and the red shift in the band gap. DFT calculations clearly indicated that only the substitutional dopant antiferromagnetic configurations were more energetically favorable. The gradual increase of magnetization at a low level of Mn-doping could be explained by the prevalence of antiferromagnetic manganese-vacancy pairs. Higher concentrations of Mn led to the appearance of ferromagnetic interactions between manganese and oxygen vacancies. The increase in the concentration of metallic dopants caused not just an increase in the total magnetic moment of the system but also changed the magnetic interactions between the magnetic moments on the metal ions and oxygen. The present study provides new insight into the fundamental understanding of the origin of ferromagnetism in transition metal-doped QDs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new ecologically clean method for the solid-phase synthesis of oxide copper-ceria catalysts with the use of the mechanochemical activation of a mixture of Cu powder (8 wt %) with CeO2 was developed. It was established that metallic copper was oxidized by oxygen from CeO2 in the course of mechanochemical activation. The intensity of a signal due to metallic Cu in the X-ray diffraction analysis spectra decreased with the duration of mechanochemical activation. The Cu1+, Cu2+, and Ce3+ ions were detected on the sample surface by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The application of temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) made it possible to detect two active oxygen species in the reaction of CO oxidation in the regions of 190 and 210-220°C by a TPR-H2 method and in the regions of 150 and 180-190°C by a TPR-CO method. It is likely that the former species occurred in the catalytically active nanocomposite surface structures containing Cu-O-Ce bonds, whereas the latter occurred in the finely dispersed particles of CuO on the surface of CeO2. The maximum conversion of CO (98%, 165°C) reached by the mechanochemical activation of the sample for 60 min was almost the same as conversion on a supported CuO/CeO2 catalyst. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]