Structural analysis and self-absorption correction of 1.5 mM and 15 mM Ni (II) complexes: Probing the limit of dilute systems with identical coordination number, and conditions for subtle hypothesis testing

Abstract

We apply a novel correction for the self-absorption distortion in fluorescence X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) data collected from both 15 mM and 1.5 mM Ni (II) complex solutions. Self-absorption is an inevitable systematic effect that distorts fluorescence XAS data and limits the available information content. This work builds on an earlier project (Trevorah et al., 2019) and demonstrates that this method is valid for dilute samples. Structural analysis of the corrected data yields significant new insights with tight constraints on the determined molecular structure and dynamic bond lengths. The samples considered are nickel (II) complexes, bis(N-n-propyl-salicylaldiminato) nickel(II), ..