Chemical analysis of solid-liquid interfaces by in-situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry

Solid-liquid interfaces are important locations for various reactions to occur in biological, chemical and physical processes [1-3]. Recently, an experimental setup for in-situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) technique has been installed at the 2 MV Van-de-Graaff accelerator at Ion Beam Center (IBC) of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf to analyze solid-liquid interfaces as well as to conduct electro-chemistry experiments. The focus of the project is to perform experiments in different fields utilizing this quantitative, non-destructive and standard free ion beam analysis technique for solid-liquid interfaces. A Si3N4 window separates the liquid in the cell from vacuum in the beam line. He+ beam with E = 1.7 MeV is employed to bombard the samples. For feasibility tests, the cell was filled with air, Ne, He, Xe and DIH2O respectively and RBS and Particle Induced X-Ray Emission Spectroscopy (PIXE) spectra were recorded. To examine the efficiency of the technique, ion backscattering studies of the solid-liquid using 0.1M solutions of Cu(NO3) and AgNO3 have been performed and are compared to the literature [4].
[1] Kötz et al., Electrochimica acta. 31 (1986) 169.
[2] Morita et al., Radiation Physics and Chemistry. 49 (1997) 603.
[3] Hodnik et al., Accounts of chemical research. 49 (2016) 2015.
[4] Forster et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B. 28 (1987) 385.