A decomposition procedure for the determination of copper oxidation states in Cu‐zeolites by XPS

Abstract

Abstract A procedure to determine the chemical state of copper in differently prepared catalysts is proposed. It is based on a peak decomposition of the main Cu 2p 3/2 signal only, which involves both Cu(II) and Cu(I) contributions. The presence of the closest shake‐up satellite is related to the Cu(II) contribution only, in fact a linear dependence of the satellite area versus the Cu(II) area has been found. This method has been applied to characterize variously prepared catalysts and to quantify the different copper states at the surface. A molecular picture is formulated to describe a possible mechanism for copper reduction occurring during the catalyst preparation route at the zeolite surface. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.