Multielectron excitations in the K-edge x-ray-absorption near-edge spectra of V, Cr, and Mn 3d0 compounds with tetrahedral coordination

Cr(VI) formation in ferrochrome-smelter dusts

Dusts generated during ferrochrome smelting in a pilot-scale DC arc furnace were sampled from the furnace freeboard and from the off-gas handling stream (cyclone and baghouse). The dusts comprise fine-grained feed material (chromite, flux, and reductant); compositionally heterogeneous, glassy micro-spherules, interpreted as gas condensates and/or aerosolized melt droplets; and trace amounts of ferrochrome. Synchrotron-based micro-X-ray-fluorescence and micro-X-ray absorption near-edge structure around the chromium (Cr) K-edge was used to identify the distribution and speciation of Cr in dust particulates from the freeboard and the cyclone. The dust samples contain Cr in multiple oxidation states, including Cr(0) (hosted by ferrochrome), Cr(III), and Cr(VI). The majority of Cr occurs as Cr(III) in chromite. In both the furnace-freeboard and the cyclone dusts, Cr(VI) was consistently associated with the Si-Ca-Mg-rich micro-spherules. A major finding of this study is that Cr oxidation and Cr(VI) formation can occur in aerosolized dusts within the closed DC-arc furnace during ferrochrome smelting under conditions that are deemed to be essentially reducing. The association of Cr(VI) with the micro-spherules forwards the hypothesis that the high temperature of the furnace off-gasses and the flux composition influence the likelihood of Cr(VI) formation within a closed furnace under open-bath smelting conditions.

Solid Phase Speciation and Solubility of Vanadium in Highly Weathered Soils

Vanadium (V) is increasingly recognized both as a medical trace element with essential biological functions and as a potentially toxic environmental pollutant, yet the current knowledge on V speciation in soils is limited. Here, we investigated the chemical speciation and extractability of V in highly weathered tropical soils, which are often rich in V compared to soils of temperate climatic regions. Vanadium K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra of soil samples, along with a range of reference compounds differing in V-oxidation state and coordination chemistry, revealed the predominance of V^4+/5+ in a primarily octahedral or tetrahedral coordination. The soil spectra were best fitted with linear combinations of reference spectra of V⁴⁺ in the structure of kaolinite, V⁵⁺ adsorbed to kaolinite, and other V⁵⁺-sorbed solids. Vanadate adsorbed to goethite, ferrihydrite, gibbsite, and/or Fe(III)-natural organic matter complexes and V⁴⁺ in the structure of goethite may be present, but cannot unequivocally be distinguished from each other by XANES spectroscopy. Sequential and single chemical extractions provided complementary information on the solubility of V under various conditions. The most labile V fractions, interpreted as weakly and strongly adsorbed V⁵⁺, are the most relevant to V mobility and bioavailability in the environment, and accounted for only ∼2% of total soil V. Our results demonstrate that kaolinite and Fe oxides can effectively sequester V in highly weathered soils by mechanisms of adsorption and structural incorporation and are relevant to other Fe-oxide-rich environments under acidic and oxic conditions.

Optimized Finite Difference Method for the Full-Potential XANES Simulations: Application to Molecular Adsorption Geometries in MOFs and Metal-Ligand Intersystem Crossing Transients

Accurate modeling of the X-ray absorption near-edge spectra (XANES) is required to unravel the local structure of metal sites in complex systems and their structural changes upon chemical or light stimuli. Two relevant examples are reported here concerning the following: (i) the effect of molecular adsorption on 3d metals hosted inside metal-organic frameworks and (ii) light induced dynamics of spin crossover in metal-organic complexes. In both cases, the amount of structural models for simulation can reach a hundred, depending on the number of structural parameters. Thus, the choice of an accurate but computationally demanding finite difference method for the ab initio X-ray absorption simulations severely restricts the range of molecular systems that can be analyzed by personal computers. Employing the FDMNES code [Phys. Rev. B, 2001, 63, 125120] we show that this problem can be handled if a proper diagonalization scheme is applied. Due to the use of dedicated solvers for sparse matrices, the calculation time was reduced by more than 1 order of magnitude compared to the standard Gaussian method, while the amount of required RAM was halved. Ni K-edge XANES simulations performed by the accelerated version of the code allowed analyzing the coordination geometry of CO and NO on the Ni active sites in CPO-27-Ni MOF. The Ni-CO configuration was found to be linear, while Ni-NO was bent by almost 90°. Modeling of the Fe K-edge XANES of photoexcited aqueous [Fe(bpy)3](2+) with a 100 ps delay we identified the Fe-N distance elongation and bipyridine rotation upon transition from the initial low-spin to the final high-spin state. Subsequently, the X-ray absorption spectrum for the intermediate triplet state with expected 100 fs lifetime was theoretically predicted.

X-ray absorption spectroscopy of metalloproteins

Metalloproteins are enormously important in biology. While a variety of techniques exist for studying metals in biology, X-ray absorption spectroscopy is particularly useful in that it can determine the local electronic and physical structure around the metal center, and is one of the few avenues for studying "spectroscopically silent" metal ions like Zn(II) and Cu(I) that have completely filled valence bands. While X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) are useful for studying metalloprotein structure, they suffer the limitation that the detected signal is an average of all the various metal centers in the sample, which limits its usefulness for studying metal centers in situ or in cell lysates. It would be desirable to be able to separate the various proteins in a mixture prior to performing X-ray absorption studies, so that the derived signal is from one species only. Here we describe a method for performing X-ray absorption spectroscopy on protein bands following electrophoretic separation and western blotting.

Degradation process of lead chromate in paintings by Vincent van Gogh studied by means of synchrotron X-ray spectromicroscopy and related methods. 1. Artificially aged model samples

On several paintings by artists of the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th Century a darkening of the original yellow areas, painted with the chrome yellow pigment (PbCrO(4), PbCrO(4)·xPbSO(4), or PbCrO(4)·xPbO) is observed. The most famous of these are the various Sunflowers paintings Vincent van Gogh made during his career. In the first part of this work, we attempt to elucidate the degradation process of chrome yellow by studying artificially aged model samples. In view of the very thin (1-3 μm) alteration layers that are formed, high lateral resolution spectroscopic methods such as microscopic X-ray absorption near edge (μ-XANES), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (μ-XRF), and electron energy loss spectrometry (EELS) were employed. Some of these use synchrotron radiation (SR). Additionally, microscopic SR X-ray diffraction (SR μ-XRD), μ-Raman, and mid-FTIR spectroscopy were employed to completely characterize the samples. The formation of Cr(III) compounds at the surface of the chrome yellow paint layers is particularly observed in one aged model sample taken from a historic paint tube (ca. 1914). About two-thirds of the chromium that is present at the surface has reduced from the hexavalent to the trivalent state. The EELS and μ-XANES spectra are consistent with the presence of Cr(2)O(3)·2H(2)O (viridian). Moreover, as demonstrated by μ-XANES, the presence of another Cr(III) compound, such as either Cr(2)(SO(4))(3)·H(2)O or (CH(3)CO(2))(7)Cr(3)(OH)(2) [chromium(III) acetate hydroxide], is likely.

Soil humic acids may favour the persistence of hexavalent chromium in soil

The interaction between hexavalent chromium Cr(VI), as K(2)CrO(4), and standard humic acids (HAs) in bulk solution was studied using three complementary analytical methods: UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy and differential pulse stripping voltammetry. The observed UV-Vis and X-ray absorption spectra showed that, under our experimental conditions, HAs did not induce reduction of Cr(VI) to its trivalent chemical form. The interaction between Cr(VI) and HAs has rather led to the formation of Cr(VI)-HAs micelles via supramolecular chemical processes. The reported results could contribute towards explaining the relative persistence of ecotoxic hexavalent chromium in soils.

Simulating the oxygen K-edge spectrum from grain boundaries in ceramic oxides using the multiple scattering methodology

In this paper we demonstrate the use of the multiple scattering methodology to interpret oxygen K-edge spectra from both the bulk and grain boundaries in a variety of ceramic oxides. The experimental electron energy loss spectra (EELS) used in this study, were obtained from a dedicated scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM). Using the STEM to obtain the spectra has the advantage that each spectrum can be acquired with atomic spatial resolution. While the energy resolution is limited to approximately 0.8 eV, and the angular integration in the microscope apertures precludes momentum resolved spectroscopy, this unprecedented spatial resolution allows the electronic structure at individual defect sites to be determined. Additionally, as the microscope can also provide an atomic resolution image of the defect, the relationship between the atomic structure of the defect and its local electronic structure can be determined. In practice, this is achieved by using the structure observed in the image to build the real space atomic cluster for multiple scattering simulations. Detailed interpretation of the simulations of oxygen K-edge spectra from bulk MgO, CaO, SrTiO3, TiO2, MnO2, Mn3O4, Mn2O3 and MnO are presented. In addition, the simulations from grain boundaries in TiO2 (undoped) and SrTiO3 (undoped and Mn doped) are discussed in relation to quantifying the changes in the local electronic structure that are a direct consequence of the defect structure. The simulations are used to make interpretations of the structure-property relationships at these grain boundaries.