A Kβ valence to core X-ray emission approach for fluorine and oxygen differentiation in Zr compounds

Distinguishing between neighbouring atomic number elements in the vicinity of a probed metal centre is challenging when using X-ray spectroscopies. This study shows the suitability of X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) to probe a ligand (ns, np) – Zr (4d) to Zr (1s) valence to core (VtC) emission line in Zr based compounds. We sucessully demonstrate the differentiation between fluorine and oxygen environments around Zr. These findings were directly applied to compounds that have been reported for catalytic activity in C-F bond activation or oxygen evolution reactions. The results show different contributions of the respective precursors , oxygen, and fluorine in the local environment of the compounds.