title: In situ EELS study of dehydration of Al(OH)₃ by electron beam irradiation.
abstract: The dehydration of Al(OH)₃ by an electron beam has been investigated using the time-dependent electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) technique. Based on an analysis of low-loss EELS, Al L₂₃ and O K-edge, it is found that the processes are initially induced by the loss of H, followed by sputtering of O, which induce local structural changes. Some of the octahedrally coordinated Al transfer to tetrahedrally coordinated Al. The time-dependent O K-edge shows that the pre-edge peak in the O K-edge of Al(OH)₃ is induced by the formation of unpaired O, rather than an intrinsic feature of the OH bond.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1504, USA. nan.jiang@asu.edu
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: John C H
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Spence
mesh_terms: D000536:Aluminum Hydroxide / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003681:Dehydration / Q000378:metabolism*; D004583:Electrons; D046590:Spectroscopy, Electron Energy-Loss / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D000536:Aluminum Hydroxide