Coca-Cola, by near-ambient pressure XPS

Abstract

Near ambient pressure-x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) is a less traditional form of XPS that allows samples to be analyzed at relatively high pressures, i.e., at ca. 2500 Pa, or higher in some cases. With NAP-XPS, XPS can probe moderately volatile liquids, biological samples, porous materials, and/or polymeric materials that outgas significantly. In this submission, we show an NAP-XPS survey spectrum, and also O 1s and C 1s narrow scans, of a commercial soft drink, Coca-Cola. Clearly this is a material that could not be analyzed at moderate pressures by conventional XPS. The C 1s narrow scan is fit to five synthetic components. The O 1s narrow scan shows strong contributions from both liquid and gas phase water. A small N 1s signal in the survey spectrum is attributed to background nitrogen. The shape of the uniqueness plot corresponding to the C 1s fit suggests that the fit parameters are statistically significant.