2015 Volume 2015 Issue 269 Pages 181-189
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has been frequently utilized to analyze the structures of carbon materials. However, few types of defects such as functional groups have been identified and reported, and some of these assignments are controversial. For example, the structures of oxygen-containing functional groups of carbon materials such as graphite oxide and graphene oxide are still under debate. Reported assignments for the C1s spectra of nitrogen-containing functional groups in carbon materials are few and there has been little discussion of such spectra. One effective method to clarify the structures of carbon materials in detail is simulation of XPS spectra using computational chemistry. This work explains the current problems for the XPS analysis of the C1s spectra of carbon materials and suggests the peak positions of various oxygen- and nitrogen-containing functional groups in addition to their full width at half maximum.
