{
  "abstract": "X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is widely used to measure the surface chemistry of nanomaterials, yet it can also provide structural information. The thickness of surface passivation shells can be determined with XPS and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES), but accuracy depends upon knowledge of the density of core and shell materials. This property is typically sourced from literature data on bulk materials, which may not be correct for nanomaterials. We representatively refine shell thickness XPS and HAXPES measurements for silica shells on iron oxide and lanthanide nanoparticles, exploiting electron densities experimentally derived by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements of the core–shell nanoparticles in liquid mixtures with different densities. This results in improved agreement between XPS results and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and SAXS shell thickness measurements. Thereby, HAXPES provided results in closer agreement with TEM and SAXS than XPS, likely due to a lower sensitivity to coating thickness variations.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing (BAM), Division 1.2 Biophotonics, Richard-Willstaetter Str. 11, 12489 Berlin, Germany",
    "Free University Berlin, Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, Arnimallee 22, 14195 Berlin, Germany",
    "National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Hampton Road, TW11 0LW Teddington, U.K.",
    "Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Abbestr. 2-12, 10587 Berlin, Germany",
    "Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing (BAM), Division 6.1 Surface Analysis and Interfacial Chemistry, Unter den Eichen 44-46, 12203 Berlin, Germany"
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 11,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Sarah-Luise Abram",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8555-9898"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Anna Matiushkina",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8047-633X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "David Cant",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4247-5739"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Nicholas Engel"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Robin Schürmann",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4957-5238"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Jörg Radnik",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0302-6815"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Elina Andresen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Carsten Prinz"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Christian Gollwitzer",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6437-8825"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Alexander Gordon Shard",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8931-5740"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Ute Resch-Genger",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0944-1115"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d6tzrkym50nhh.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1021/acs.jpclett.6c02495",
  "fulltext_url": "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC13726459/",
  "id": "d6tzrkym50nhh",
  "issns": [
    "1948-7185"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.6c02495",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Letter"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Physical Insights into Materials and Molecular Properties"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2508|Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7207522394",
  "pdf_url": null,
  "pmcid": "PMC13726459",
  "pmid": "42954817",
  "published": "2026-09-02",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d6tzrkym50nhh.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-05T12:22:48Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13726459",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpclett.6c02495"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "chemistry",
      "origin": "openalex:2508|Electron and X-Ray Spectroscopy Techniques",
      "subfield": "materials-polymers"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Combining Small-Angle X‑ray Scattering with Photoelectron Spectroscopy to Increase the Accuracy of Silica Shell Thickness Measurements on Inorganic Nanocrystals",
  "title_text": "Combining Small-Angle X‑ray Scattering with Photoelectron Spectroscopy to Increase the Accuracy of Silica Shell Thickness Measurements on Inorganic Nanocrystals",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-06T12:22:25Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d6tzrkym50nhh",
  "venue": "The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters",
  "versions": []
}