Publication date: 15th December 2025
X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (XAFS), comprising XANES and EXAFS, has become a central tool for resolving local atomic and electronic structure in nanomaterials under relevant operando conditions. This talk will provide an introduction to this methodology, followed by selected state-of-the-art examples in batteries and heterogeneous catalysis.
First, the talk will focus on the practical fundamentals needed by non-specialists: what governs an absorption edge, how XANES fingerprints oxidation state, symmetry, and unoccupied density of states, and how EXAFS yields quantitative coordination numbers, bond lengths, and disorder parameters in the absence of long-range order. Emphasis will be placed on experimental design and on how analysis choices map to interpretable structural models.
The second half will show how these capabilities address two sustainability-critical areas: batteries and heterogeneous catalysis. For batteries, XAFS enables element-specific tracking of redox mechanisms, local phase evolution, and short-range reconstruction at interfaces during cycling. For catalysis, XAFS disentangles active-site speciation and coordination dynamics under reaction conditions, distinguishing spectator phases from true catalytic motifs and clarifying structure–activity relationships in supported nanoparticles.
Special emphasis will be put on the NOTOS beamline [1], with the capability to perform XAS and XRD investigations in a quasi-simultaneous way. NOTOS allows us to study the electronic structure and short- and long-range order within a wide range of scientific disciplines: chemistry, catalysis, energy-related science, nanomaterials, condensed matter and environmental science. In particular, NOTOS has been further developed to focus on in situ and operando measurements on heterogeneous catalysis, batteries [2] and electrochemistry in general.
Attendees will leave with concrete ideas for integrating XAFS into their own nanomaterials research to access local structure–property links that are inaccessible to diffraction-based approaches.
Funding from the MICIU/FEDER project PID2024-156765OB-C22 is gratefully acknowledged.
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