On the significance of the core level binding energy shifts observed in the XPS measurements on emersed electrodes

XPS investigations on emersed electrodes reveal in some cases a systematic shift in the binding energy of the upd metal or other double layer constitu ents with the electrode potential while in other cases such a dependence la cks. In the first case, there is also valid a 1:1 variation of the electrod e work function with the emersion potential but the electrode work function keeps always a constant value in the second one. Such observations yield t he tentative conclusion that the electrochemical shifts might reflect actua lly shifts in the reference level. O 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.