XAFS spectroscopy; fundamental principles and data analysis

The physical principles of XAFS spectroscopy are given at a sufficiently ba sic level to enable scientists working in the field of catalysis to critica lly evaluate articles dealing with XAFS studies on catalytic materials. The described data-analysis methods provide the basic tools for studying the e lectronic and structural properties of supported metal, metal-oxide or meta l-sulfide catalysts. These methods include (a) fitting in R-space, (b) appl ication of the difference file technique and (c) control of the fit procedu re with k(1) and k(3) weighting with the help of phase- and amplitude-corre cted Fourier transforms.