The microscopic structure of the surface of aqueous sulfuric acid solutions has great industrial relevance, playing also an important role in atmospheric chemistry. As a strong acid, the bulk of an aqueous solution of sulfuric acid will have H3O+, HSO4- and SO42- present, and at high concentrations, un-dissociated H2SO4 may be present.  However, the ion composition at the surface is still not well understood.  Using a liquid micro-jet, the surface chemistry of aqueous solutions is explored by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Experiments were performed at Beamline U41-PGM at the BESSY II synchrotron facility. By suitable choice of the photon energy the energy of the photoelectrons is tuned to either surface or bulk sensitive detection.  A series of sulfuric acid aqueous solutions is measured and using the peak areas in the XP spectra, the acid dissociation at the surface relative to the bulk can be determined for different solutions.

Investigation of the dissociation of sulfuric acid aqueous solutions using photoelectron spectroscopy

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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