Interaction between ultra-trace amount of cesium and oxides studied by total-reflection X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Baba, Yuji  ; Shimoyama, Iwao   ; Hirao, Norie; Izumi, Toshinori

The interaction between alkali metals and oxides has attracted much attention as heterogeneous catalysis, chemical reaction promoters, and high intensity electron emitter. Also the interaction of cesium and oxides has become important subject, because radioactive cesium trapped in minerals such as clay and soil may cause health risks. In the present study, we analyzed chemical states of ultra-trace amount of cesium on oxide surfaces by total reflection X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (TR-XPS) exited by synchrotron radiation. For the adsorbed cesium thicker than 0.01 layer, cesium is weakly bound with oxide through Van-der-Waals force. On the other hand, for ultra-thin layer about 0.002 layer, the chemical bond changes to covalent bond. It is suggested that this change in the chemical bonding state is one of the reasons why radioactive cesium is hard to be released from minerals.