An XPS analysis of different SiO 2 modifications employing a C 1s as well as an Au 4f 7/2 static charge reference

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Abstract
Four different silica modifications—thermally grown SiO 2 , quartz glass, silicalite and silica gel—have been investigated by XPS. Binding energies for Si 2p, Si 2s and O 1s were obtained by employing different methods of static charge referencing. In any case, a C 1s references was used as usual. In another experiment, deposited 20 nm gold particles were used to provide an Au 4f 7/2 binding energy (BE) reference. The two different charging correction procedures result in essentially identical BE data. Furthermore, the results confirm that different modifications of silica give substantially the same relevant BEs in XPS. Though the investigated samples are characterized by quite different concentrations of silanol groups, no significant effect on the measured BEs has been found. On the other hand, the analysed silica samples are observed with quite different Si 2p and O 1s peaks widths. This effect is discussed in terms of differential charging. A rather extensive compilation of XPS literature BEs of silica modifications is given.

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