Applications of photoluminescence techniques to the characterization of solid surfaces in relation to adsorption, catalysis, and photocatalysis

This review deals with the applications of photoluminescence techniques to the study of solid surfaces in relation to their properties in adsorption, catalysis, and photocatalysis. After a short introduction, the review presents the basic principles of photoluminescence spectroscopy in relation to the definitions of fluorescence and phosphorescence. Next, we discuss the practical aspects of static and dynamic photoluminescence with emphasis on the spectral parameters used to identify the photoluminescent sites. In Section IV, which is the core of the review, we discuss the identification of the surface sites and the following: coordination chemistry of ions at the surface of alkaline-earth and zirconium oxides, energy and electron transfer processes, photoluminescence and local structure of grafted vanadium oxide, and photoluminescence of various oxide-based catalysts. In Section V, we present a summary of the close relatiohship between the dynamics of the photoluminescence and the reactivities of the catalysts. Sections VI and VII deal with the applications of photoluminescence to adsorption and catalysis and discuss the case of both bulk and supported oxides. Section VIII is devoted to photocatalysis, again on bulk and supported catalysts. Sections IX and X briefly review the application of photoluminescence to chemical detection and its relation with other techniques. The last section concludes the work covered in the review and gives the most likely future directions of research work involving photoluminescence spectroscopy. © 2000 Academic Press Inc.