Role of Dopants on the Local Electronic Structure of Polymeric Carbon Nitride Photocatalysts.

Polymeric carbon nitride (PCN) is a promising class of materials for solar-to-chemical energy conversion. The increase of the photocatalytic activity of PCN is often achieved by the incorporation of heteroatoms, whose impact on the electronic structure of PCN remains poorly explored. This work reveals that the local electronic structure of PCN is strongly altered by doping with sulfur and iron using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and resonant inelastic X-ray scattering (RIXS).

Methanol oxidation on Au(332): an isothermal pulsed molecular beam study.

Isothermal molecular beam experiments on the methanol oxidation over the stepped Au(332) surface were conducted under well-defined ultra-high vacuum conditions. In the measurements, a continuous flux of methanol at excess in the gas phase and pulses of atomic oxygen were provided to the surface kept at 230 K. The formation of the partial oxidation product methyl formate under the applied conditions was evidenced by time-resolved mass spectrometry, and accumulation of formate species, which resulted in a deactivation of the surface for methyl formate formation, was followed by Infrared Reflection Absorption Spectroscopy measurements.