ESCA surface study of metal borides

To investigate metal-boron bonding, a number of typical transition metal borides have been studied using ESCA; for the sake of comparison, spectra have been obtained as well on aluminium borides as on other boron compounds. Spectra are very sensitive to surface oxidation and give a semi-quantitative appreciation of the relative oxidability of boron and metal (or metals when dealing with binary metal borides). Relevant features are discussed herein.