Single Atom Ag Bonding Between PF3T Nanocluster and TiO2 Leads the Ultra-Stable Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic H2 Production.

Atomic Ag cluster bonding is employed to reinforce the interface between PF3T nano-cluster and TiO2 nanoparticle. With an optimized Ag loading (Ag/TiO2 = 0.5 wt%), the Ag atoms will uniformly disperse on TiO2 thus generating a high density of intermediate states in the band gap to form the electron channel between the terthiophene group of PF3T and the TiO2 in the hybrid composite (denoted as T@Ag05-P). The former expands the photon absorption band width and the latter facilitates the core-hole splitting by injecting the photon excited electron (from the excitons in PF3T) into the conduction band (CB) of TiO2. These characteristics enable the high efficiency of H2 production to 16 580 µmol h-1 g-1 and photocatalysis stability without degradation under visible light exposure for 96 h. Compared to that of hybrid material without Ag bonding (TiO2@PF3T), the H2 production yield and stability are improved by 4.1 and 18.2-fold which shows the best performance among existing materials in similar component combination and interfacial reinforcement. The unique bonding method offers a new prospect to accelerate the development of photocatalytic hydrogen production technologies.

Probing the Roles of Indium Oxides on Copper Catalysts for Enhanced Selectivity during CO2-to-CO Electrochemical Reduction.

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) provides an alternative protocol to producing industrial chemicals with renewable electricity sources, and the highly selective, durable, and economic catalysts should expedite CO2RR applications. Here, we demonstrate a composite Cu-In2O3 catalyst in which a trace amount of In2O3 decorated on Cu surface greatly improves the selectivity and stability for CO2-to-CO reduction as compared to the counterparts (Cu or In2O3), realizing a CO faradaic efficiency (FECO) of 95% at -0.7 V (vs RHE) and no obvious degradation within 7 h. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy reveals that In2O3 undergoes the redox reaction and preserves the metallic state of Cu during the CO2RR process. Strong electronic interaction and coupling occur at the Cu/In2O3 interface which serves as the active site for selective CO2RR. Theoretical calculation confirms the roles of In2O3 in preventing oxidation and altering the electronic structure of Cu to assist COOH* formation and demote CO* adsorption at the Cu/In2O3 interface.

Electron Injection via Interfacial Atomic Au Clusters Substantially Enhance the Visible-Light-Driven Photocatalytic H2 Production of the PF3T Enclosed TiO2 Nanocomposite.

A hybrid composite of organic-inorganic semiconductor nanomaterials with atomic Au clusters at the interface decoration (denoted as PF3T@Au-TiO2 ) is developed for visible-light-driven H2 production via direct water splitting. With a strong electron coupling between the terthiophene groups, Au atoms and the oxygen atoms at the heterogeneous interface, significant electron injection from the PF3T to TiO2 occurs leading to a quantum leap in the H2 production yield (18 578 µmol g-1 h-1 ) by ≈39% as compared to that of the composite without Au decoration (PF3T@TiO2 , 11 321 µmol g-1 h-1 ). Compared to the pure PF3T, such a result is 43-fold improved and is the best performance among all the existing hybrid materials in similar configurations. With robust process control via industrially applicable methods, it is anticipated that the findings and proposed methodologies can accelerate the development of high-performance eco-friendly photocatalytic hydrogen production technologies.

Focusing ion funnel-assisted ambient electrospray enables high-density and uniform deposition of non-spherical gold nanoparticles for highly sensitive surface-enhanced Raman scattering.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful technique for detecting trace amounts of analytes. However, the performance of SERS substrates depends on many variables including the enhancement factor, morphology, consistency, and interaction with target analytes. In this study, we investigated, for the first time, the use of electrospray deposition (ESD) combined with a novel ambient focusing DC ion funnel to deposit a high density of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) to generate large-area, uniform substrates for highly sensitive SERS analysis. We found that the combination of ambient ion focusing with ESD facilitated high-density and intact deposition of non-spherical NPs. This also allowed us to take advantage of a polydisperse colloidal solution of AuNPs (consisting of nanospheres and nanorods), as confirmed by finite-difference time domain (FDTD) simulations. Our SERS substrate exhibited excellent capture capacity for model analyte molecules, namely 4-aminothiophenol (4-ATP) and Rhodamine 6G (R6G), with detection limits in the region of 10-11 M and a relative standard deviation of <6% over a large area (∼500 × 500 µm2). Additionally, we assessed the quantitative performance of our SERS substrate using the R6G probe molecule. The results demonstrated excellent linearity (R2 > 0.99) over a wide concentration range (10-4 M to 10-10 M) with a detection limit of 80 pM.

Enhanced CO2 Electrochemical Reduction Performance over Cu@AuCu Catalysts at High Noble Metal Utilization Efficiency.

The electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) represents a viable alternative to help close the anthropogenic carbon cycle and convert intermittent electricity from renewable energy sources to chemical energy in the form of value-added chemicals. The development of economic catalysts possessing high faradaic efficiency (FE) and mass activity (MA) toward CO2RR is critical in accelerating CO2 utilization technology. Herein, an elaborate Au-Cu catalyst where an alloyed AuCu shell caps on a Cu core (Cu@AuCu) is developed and evaluated for CO2-to-CO electrochemical conversion. Specific roles of Cu and Au for CO2RR are revealed in the alloyed core-shell structure, respectively, and a compositional-dependent volcano-plot is disclosed for the Cu@AuCu catalysts toward selective CO production. As a result, the Au2-Cu8 alloyed core-shell catalyst (only 17% Au content) achieves an FECO value as high as 94% and an MACO of 439 mA/mgAu at -0.8 V (vs RHE), superior to the values for pure Au, reflecting its high noble metal utilization efficiency.

Collaboration between a Pt-dimer and neighboring Co-Pd atoms triggers efficient pathways for oxygen reduction reaction.

The development of electrocatalysts with reconcilable balance between the cost and performance in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an imperative task for the widespread adoption of fuel cell technology. In this study, we proposed a unique model of diatomic Pt-cluster (Pt-dimer) in the topmost layer of the Co/Pd bimetallic slab (Co@Pd-Pt2) for mimicking the Cocore@Pdshell nanocatalysts (NCs) surface and systematically investigating its local-regional collaboration pathways in ORR by density functional theory (DFT). The results demonstrate that the Pt-dimer produces local differentiation from both ligand and geometric effects on the Co@Pd surface, which forms adsorption energy (Eads) gradients for relocating the ORR-adsorbates. Our calculations for Eads-variations of ORR-species, reaction coordinates, and intraparticle charge injection propose and confirm a novel local synergetic collaboration around the Pt-dimer in the Co@Pd-Pt2 system with the best-performing ORR behavior compared with all reference models. With proper selection of the composition in intraparticle components, the proposed DFT assessments could be adopted for developing economical and high-performance catalysts in various heterogeneous reactions.

Tri-atomic Pt clusters induce effective pathways in a Cocore-Pdshell nanocatalyst surface for a high-performance oxygen reduction reaction.

The crux of the hot topic concerning the widespread replacement of fuel cells (FCs) with traditional petrochemical energy is to balance improving the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and reducing the cost. The present study employs density functional theory (DFT) to investigate the effect of Pt ensemble size regulation from a single atom to full coverage on the physio-chemical properties, oxygen adsorption energies and overall ORR efficiency of bimetallic nanocatalysts (NCs) with a Cocore-Pdshell structure. Our results reveal that the electronegativity difference and lattice strain between neighboring heteroatoms are enhanced to trigger a synergetic effect in local domains, with the Pt cluster size reduced from nanometers to subnanometers. They induce a directed and tunable charge relocation mechanism from deep Co to topmost Pt to optimize the adsorption energies of O2/O* and achieve excellent ORR kinetics performance with minimum Pt usage but maximum Pt atom utilization (i.e., Pt1 to Pt3) compared with benchmark Pt(111). Such a dependency between the cluster size and corresponding ORR performance for the established Co@Pd-Ptn system can be applied to accurately guide the experimental synthesis of ordered heterogeneous catalysts (e.g., other core@shell-clusters structures) toward low Pt, high efficiency and green economy.

Stabilization of Natural Organic Matter by Short-Range-Order Iron Hydroxides.

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) is capable of modifying the surfaces of soil minerals (e.g., Fe hydroxides) or even forming stable co-precipitates with Fe(III) in a neutral environment. The DOM/Fe co-precipitation may alter biogeochemical carbon cycling in soils if the relatively mobile DOM is sorbed by soil minerals against leaching, runoff, and biodegradation. In this study, we aimed to determine the structural development of DOM/Fe co-precipitates in relation to changes in pH and C/(C + Fe) ratios using XRD, XPS, Fe K-edge XAS, FTIR, and C-NEXAFS techniques. The results showed that in the system with bulk C/(C + Fe) molar ratios ≤0.65, the ferrihydrite-like Fe domains were precipitated as the core and covered by the C shells. When the C/(C + Fe) molar ratio ranged between 0.71 and 0.89, the emerging Fe-C bonding suggested a more substantial association between Fe domains including edge- and corner-sharing FeO6 octahedra and DOM. With C/(C + Fe) bulk molar ratios ≥0.92, only corner-sharing FeO6 octahedra along with Fe-C bonding were found. The homogeneously distributed C and Fe domains caused the enhancement of Fe and C solubilization from co-precipitates. The C/(C + Fe) ratios dominated structural compositions and stabilities of C/Fe co-precipitates and may directly affect the Fe and C cycles in soils.

Mechanism of Arsenic Adsorption on Magnetite Nanoparticles from Water: Thermodynamic and Spectroscopic Studies.

Removal of arsenic (As) from water supplies is needed to reduce As exposure through drinking water and food consumption in many regions of the world. Magnetite nanoparticles (MNPs) are promising and novel adsorbents for As removal because of their great adsorption capacity for As and easy separation. This study aimed to investigate the adsorption mechanism of arsenate, As(V), and arsenite, As(III), on MNPs by macroscopic adsorption experiments in combination with thermodynamic calculation and microspectroscopic characterization using synchrotron-radiation-based X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Adsorption reactions are favorable endothermic processes as evidenced by increased adsorption with increasing temperatures, and high positive enthalpy change. EXAFS spectra suggested predominant formation of bidentate binuclear corner-sharing complexes ((2)C) for As(V), and tridentate hexanuclear corner-sharing ((3)C) complexes for As(III) on MNP surfaces. The macroscopic and microscopic data conclusively identified the formation of inner-sphere complexes between As and MNP surfaces. More intriguingly, XANES and XPS results revealed complex redox transformation of the adsorbed As on MNPs exposed to air: Concomitant with the oxidation of MNPs, the oxidation of As(III) and MNPs was expected, but the observed As(V) reduction was surprising because of the role played by the reactive Fe(II).

Gold atomic clusters extracting the valence electrons to shield the carbon monoxide passivation on near-monolayer core-shell nanocatalysts in methanol oxidation reactions.

Atomic-scale gold clusters were intercalated at the inter-facet corner sites of Pt-shell Ru-core nanocatalysts with near-monolayer shell thickness. We demonstrated that these unique clusters could serve as a drain of valence electrons in the kink region of the core-shell heterojunction. As jointly revealed by density functional theory calculations and valence band spectra, these Au clusters extract core-level electrons to the valence band. They prevent corrosion due to protonation and enhance the tolerance of CO by increasing the electronegativity at the outermost surface of the NCs during the methanol oxidation reaction (MOR). In these circumstances, the retained current density of Pt-shell Ru-core NCs is doubled in a long-term (2 hours) MOR at a fixed voltage (0.5 V vs. SCE) by intercalating these sub-nanometer gold clusters. Such novel structural confinement provides a possible strategy for developing direct-methanol fuel cell (DMFC) modules with high power and stability.

Iridium Single Atoms to Nanoparticles: Nurturing the Local Synergy with Cobalt-Oxide Supported Palladium Nanoparticles for Oxygen Reduction Reaction.

A ternary catalyst comprising Iridium (Ir) single-atoms (SA)s decorated on the Co-oxide supported palladium (Pd) nanoparticles (denoted as CPI-SA) is developed in this work. The CPI-SA with 1 wt.% of Ir exhibits unprecedented high mass activity (MA) of 7173 and 770 mA mgIr -1, respectively, at 0.85 and 0.90 V versus RHE in alkaline ORR (0.1 m KOH), outperforming the commercial Johnson Matthey Pt catalyst (J.M.-Pt/C; 20 wt.% Pt) by 107-folds. More importantly, the high structural reliability of the Ir single-atoms endows the CPI-SA with outstanding durability, where it shows progressively increasing MA of 13 342 and 1372 mA mgIr -1, respectively, at 0.85 and 0.90 V versus RHE up to 69 000 cycles (3 months) in the accelerated degradation test (ADT). Evidence from the in situ partial fluorescence yield X-ray absorption spectroscopy (PFY-XAS) and the electrochemical analysis indicate that the Ir single-atoms and adjacent Pd domains synergistically promote the O2 splitting and subsequent desorption of hydroxide ions (OH-), respectively. Whereas the Co-atoms underneath serve as electron injectors to boost the ORR activity of the Ir single-atoms. Besides, a progressive and sharp drop in the ORR performance is observed when Ir-clusters and Ir nanoparticles are decorated on the Co-oxide-supported Pd nanoparticles.

Selenium speciation in coal ash spilled at the Tennessee Valley Authority Kingston site.

Selenium (Se) in coal ash spills poses a threat to adjacent ecosystems because of its potential to mobilize and bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. Given that the mobility and bioavailability of Se is controlled by its valence states, we aimed to define Se speciation in coal ash solids and examine the relationships between Se speciation and the magnitude of its mobilization from coal ash. We used coal ash samples from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)-Kingston fossil plant and the site of a coal ash spill that occurred in 2008 in Tennessee. Results of X-ray absorption spectroscopic analyses showed that Se in coal ash samples was a mixture of elemental Se(0) and Se oxyanions. The amount of leachable Se increased with an increase of pH from 3 to 13. At the natural pH of coal ash samples (from pH 7.6 to 9.5), the leachable Se was comprised of Se oxyanions, mainly selenite. This was observed by both direct quantification of Se oxyanions in the leachate and the corresponding loss of Se oxyanions in the solid phase. At pH 12, however, the Se release appeared to derive from both desorption of Se oxyanions and oxidative dissolution of elemental Se(0). Our results indicate that Se oxyanions are the most labile species; however, the magnitude of Se mobilization will increase if the waste material is subjected to alkaline conditions.

Biogeochemical reductive release of soil embedded arsenate around a crater area (Guandu) in northern Taiwan using X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy.

This study investigates biogeochemical reductive release of arsenate from beudantite into solution in a crater area in northern Taiwan, using a combination of X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and atomic absorption spectrometry. Total arsenic (As) concentrations in the soil were more than 200 mg/kg. Over four months of laboratory experiments, less than 0.8% As was released into solution after reduction experiments. The 71% to 83% As was chemically reduced into arsenite (As(III)) and partially weathering into the soluble phase. The kinetic dissolution and re-precipitation of As, Fe, Pb and sulfate in this area of paddy soils merits further study.

Atomic Scaled Depth Correlation to the Oxygen Reduction Reaction Performance of Single Atom Ni Alloy to the NiO2 Supported Pd Nanocrystal.

This study demonstrates the intercalation of single-atom Ni (NiSA ) substantially reduces the reaction activity of Ni oxide supported Pd nanoparticle (NiO2 /Pd) in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The results indicate the transition states kinetically consolidate the adsorption energy for the chemisorbed O and OH species on the ORR activity. Notably, the NiO2 /Ni1 /Pd performs the optimum ORR behavior with the lowest barrier of 0.49 eV and moderate second-step barrier of 0.30 eV consequently confirming its utmost ORR performance. Through the stepwise cross-level demonstrations, a structure-Eads -ΔE correspondence for the proposed NiO2 /Nin /Pd systems is established. Most importantly, such a correspondence reveals that the electronic structure of heterogeneous catalysts can be significantly differed by the segregation of atomic clusters in different dimensions and locations. Besides, the doping-depth effect exploration of the NiSA in the NiO2 /Pd structure intrinsically elucidates that the Ni atom doping in the subsurface induces the most fruitful NiSA /PdML synergy combining the electronic and strain effects to optimize the ORR, whereas this desired synergy diminishes at high Pd coverages. Overall, the results not only rationalize the variation in the redox properties but most importantly provides a precision evaluation of the process window for optimizing the configuration and composition of bimetallic catalysts in practical experiments.

Sub-Millisecond Laser-Irradiation-Mediated Surface Restructure Boosts the CO Production Yield of Cobalt Oxide Supported Pd Nanoparticles.

The catalytic conversion of CO2 into valuable commodities has the potential to balance ongoing energy and environmental issues. To this end, the reverse water-gas shift (RWGS) reaction is a key process that converts CO2 into CO for various industrial processes. However, the competitive CO2 methanation reaction severely limits the CO production yield; therefore, a highly CO-selective catalyst is needed. To address this issue, we have developed a bimetallic nanocatalyst comprising Pd nanoparticles on the cobalt oxide support (denoted as CoPd) via a wet chemical reduction method. Furthermore, the as-prepared CoPd nanocatalyst was exposed to sub-millisecond laser irradiation with per-pulse energies of 1 mJ (denoted as CoPd-1) and 10 mJ (denoted as CoPd-10) for a fixed duration of 10 s to optimize the catalytic activity and selectivity. For the optimum case, the CoPd-10 nanocatalyst exhibited the highest CO production yield of ∼1667 µmol g-1catalyst, with a CO selectivity of ∼88% at a temperature of 573 K, which is a 41% improvement over pristine CoPd (~976 µmol g-1catalyst). The in-depth analysis of structural characterizations along with gas chromatography (GC) and electrochemical analysis suggested that such a high catalytic activity and selectivity of the CoPd-10 nanocatalyst originated from the sub-millisecond laser-irradiation-assisted facile surface restructure of cobalt oxide supported Pd nanoparticles, where atomic CoOx species were observed in the defect sites of the Pd nanoparticles. Such an atomic manipulation led to the formation of heteroatomic reaction sites, where atomic CoOx species and adjacent Pd domains, respectively, promoted the CO2 activation and H2 splitting steps. In addition, the cobalt oxide support helped to donate electrons to Pd, thereby enhancing its ability of H2 splitting. These results provide a strong foundation to use sub-millisecond laser irradiation for catalytic applications.

Pt-Mediated Interface Engineering Boosts the Oxygen Reduction Reaction Performance of Ni Hydroxide-Supported Pd Nanoparticles.

Fuel cells are considered potential energy conversion devices for utopia; nevertheless, finding a highly efficacious and economical electrocatalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is of great interest. By keeping this in view, we have proposed a novel design of a trimetallic nanocatalyst (NC) comprising atomic Pt clusters at the heterogeneous Ni(OH)2-to-Pd interface (denoted NPP-70). The as-prepared material surpasses the commercial J.M.-Pt/C (20 wt %) catalyst by ∼ 166 and ∼19 times with exceptionally high specific and mass activities of 16.11 mA cm-2 and 484.8 mA mgPt-1 at 0.90 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) in alkaline ORR (0.1 M KOH), respectively. On top of that, NPP-70 NC retains nearly 100% performance after 10k accelerated durability test (ADT) cycles. The results of physical characterization and electrochemical analysis confirm that atomic-scale Pt clusters induce strong lattice strain (compressive) at the Ni(OH)2-to-Pd interface, which triggers the electron relocation from Ni to Pt atoms. Such charge localization is vital for O2 splitting on surface Pt atoms, followed by the relocation of OH- ions from the Pd surface. Besides, a sharp fall down in ORR performance (mass activity is 37 mA mgPt-1 at 0.90 V versus RHE) is observed when the Pt clusters are decorated on the surface of NiOx and Pd (denoted NPP-RT). In situ partial fluorescence yield mode X-ray absorption spectroscopy (PFY-XAS) was employed to reveal the ORR pathways on both configurations. The obtained results demonstrate that interface engineering can be a potential approach to boost the electrocatalytic activity of metal hydroxide/oxide-supported Pd nanoparticles and in turn allow Pd to be a promising alternative for commercial Pt catalysts.

Unique (100) Surface Configuration Enables Promising Oxygen Reduction Performance for Pt3Co Nanodendrite Catalysts.

Selective exposure of active surfaces of Pt-based electrocatalysts has been demonstrated as an effective strategy to improve Pt utilization and promote oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity in fuel cell application. However, challenges remain in stabilizing those active surface structures, which often suffer undesirable degradation and poor durability along with surface passivation, metal dissolution, and agglomeration of Pt-based electrocatalysts. To overcome the aforementioned obstacles, we here demonstrate the unique (100) surface configuration enabling active and stable ORR performance for bimetallic Pt3Co nanodendrite structures. Using elaborate microscopy and spectroscopy characterization, it is revealed that the Co atoms are preferentially segregated and oxidized at the Pt3Co(100) surface. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) shows that such (100) surface configuration prevents the oxygen chemisorption and oxide formation on active Pt during the ORR process. Thus, the Pt3Co nanodendrite catalyst shows not only a high ORR mass activity of 730 mA/mg at 0.9 V vs RHE, which is 6.6-fold higher than that of the Pt/C, but also impressively high stability with 98% current retention after the acceleration degradation test in acid media for 5000 cycles, far exceeding the Pt or Pt3Co nanoparticles. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation also confirms the lateral and structural effects from the segregated Co and oxides on the Pt3Co(100) surface in reducing the catalyst oxophilicity and the free energy for the formation of an OH intermediate in the ORR.

Co-Existence of Atomic Pt and CoPt Nanoclusters on Co/SnOx Mix-Oxide Demonstrates an Ultra-High-Performance Oxygen Reduction Reaction Activity.

An effective approach for increasing the Noble metal-utilization by decorating the atomic Pt clusters (1 wt.%) on the CoO2@SnPd2 nanoparticle (denoted as CSPP) for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is demonstrated in this study. For the optimum case when the impregnation temperature for Co-crystal growth is 50 °C (denoted as CSPP-50), the CoPt nanoalloys and Pt-clusters decoration with multiple metal-to-metal oxide interfaces are formed. Such a nanocatalyst (NC) outperforms the commercial Johnson Matthey-Pt/C (J.M.-Pt/C; 20 wt.% Pt) catalyst by 78-folds with an outstanding mass activity (MA) of 4330 mA mgPt-1 at 0.85 V vs. RHE in an alkaline medium (0.1 M KOH). The results of physical structure inspections along with electrochemical analysis suggest that such a remarkable ORR performance is dominated by the potential synergism between the surface anchored Pt-clusters, CoPt-nanoalloys, and adjacent SnPd2 domain, where Pt-clusters offer ideal adsorption energy for O2 splitting and CoPt-nanoalloys along with SnPd2 domain boost the subsequent desorption of hydroxide ions (OH-).

Tuning Fe Spin Moment in Fe-N-C Catalysts to Climb the Activity Volcano via a Local Geometric Distortion Strategy.

As the most promising alternative to platinum-based catalysts for cathodic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, further performance enhancement of Fe-N-C catalysts is highly expected to promote their wide application. In Fe-N-C catalysts, the single Fe atom forms a square-planar configuration with four adjacent N atoms (D4h symmetry). Breaking the D4h symmetry of the FeN4 active center provides a new route to boost the activity of Fe-N-C catalysts. Herein, for the first time, the deformation of the square-planar coordination of FeN4 moiety achieved by introducing chalcogen oxygen groups (XO2 , X = S, Se, Te) as polar functional groups in the Fe-N-C catalyst is reported. The theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that breaking the D4h symmetry of FeN4 results in the rearrangement of Fe 3d electrons and increases spin moment of Fe centers. The efficient spin state manipulation optimizes the adsorption energetics of ORR intermediates, thereby significantly promoting the intrinsic ORR activity of Fe-N-C catalysts, among which the SeO2 modified catalyst lies around the peak of the ORR volcano plot. This work provides a new strategy to tune the local coordination and thus the electronic structure of single-atom catalysts.

Characterizing porous microaggregates and soil organic matter sequestered in allophanic paleosols on Holocene tephras using synchrotron-based X-ray microscopy and spectroscopy.

Allophanic tephra-derived soils can sequester sizable quantities of soil organic matter (SOM). However, no studies have visualized the fine internal porous structure of allophanic soil microaggregates, nor studied the carbon structure preserved in such soils or paleosols. We used synchrotron radiation-based transmission X-ray microscopy (TXM) to perform 3D-tomography of the internal porous structure of dominantly allophanic soil microaggregates, and carbon near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (C NEXAFS) spectroscopy to characterize SOM in ≤ 12,000-year-old tephra-derived allophane-rich (with minor ferrihydrite) paleosols. The TXM tomography showed a vast network of internal, tortuous nano-pores within an allophanic microaggregate comprising nanoaggregates. SOM in the allophanic paleosols at four sites was dominated by carboxylic/carbonyl functional groups with subordinate quinonic, aromatic, and aliphatic groups. All samples exhibited similar compositions despite differences between the sites. That the SOM does not comprise specific types of functional groups through time implies that the functional groups are relict. The SOM originated at the land/soil surface: ongoing tephra deposition (intermittently or abruptly) then caused the land-surface to rise so that the once-surface horizons were buried more deeply and hence became increasingly isolated from inputs by the surficial/modern organic cycle. The presence of quinonic carbon, from biological processes but vulnerable to oxygen and light, indicates the exceptional protection of SOM and bio-signals in allophanic paleosols, attributable both to the porous allophane (with ferrihydrite) aggregates that occlude the relict SOM from degradation, and to rapid burial by successive tephra-fallout, as well as strong Al-organic chemical bonding. TXM and C NEXAFS spectroscopy help to unravel the fine structure of soils and SOM and are of great potential for soil science studies.