Characterization of the Surface of Ba(NO3) 2 Powder by XPS

This work reports survey and core level x-ray photoemission spectra obtained from the surface of a barium nitrate powder. The high purity (99.999%) barium nitrate specimen was commercially obtained from Alfa/AESARS. The XPS spectra were measured with a Kratos Axis 165 instrument using monochromatic Al Kα radiation. The survey spectrum was measured with an 80 eV pass energy and the core level spectra (Ba 3d, N 1s, O 1s, and C 1s) were acquired using a 20 eV pass energy corresponding to analyzer resolutions of 1.12 and 0.28 eV, respectively. The data are consistent with the surface being composed of primarily barium nitrate with a small contribution from barium nitrite. Carbon was the only contaminant species observed.