In aqua electrochemistry probed by XPEEM: experimental setup, examples, and challenges

TL;DR

This paper presents an experimental setup using XPEEM to study electrified graphene-liquid interfaces, highlighting the advantages of electrolyte-filled microchannel arrays for detailed spectroscopic and temporal analysis.

Contribution

It introduces a novel microchannel array platform for XPEEM studies of liquid interfaces, combining hyperspectral imaging with data mining for enhanced analysis.

Findings

Successful implementation of XPEEM on graphene-liquid interfaces

Microchannel arrays enable detailed spectroscopic analysis

Data mining reveals behaviors at microsample level

Abstract

Recent developments in environmental and liquid cells equipped with electron transparent graphene windows have enabled traditional surface science spectromicroscopy tools, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to be applied to study solid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces. Here, we focus on the experimental implementation of PEEM to probe electrified graphene-liquid interfaces using electrolyte-filled microchannel arrays as a new sample platform. We demonstrate the important methodological advantage of these multi-sample arrays: they enable the combination of the wide field of view hyperspectral imaging capabilities from PEEM with the use of powerful data mining algorithms to reveal spectroscopic and temporal behaviors at the level of the individual microsample or the entire array ensemble