Determination of coordinations and coordination-specific site occupancies by electron energy-loss spectroscopy: An investigation of boron—oxygen compounds

Electron energy-loss near-edge structure (ELNES) in B1s core-level spectra has been investigated for various compounds containing boron in planar-trigonal, tetrahedral or both coordinations to oxygen. Distinctive BO3 and BO4 ELNES “fingerprints” have been determined experimentally and confirmed theoretically by multiple scattering calculations. We demonstrate a quantitative method to derive the coordination-specific boron site occupancies from B1s spectra taken from complex borates containing both coordinations. This method has been applied to investigate the radiation damage of hydroxyborate minerals and to analyze the B1s ELNES taken from boron-doped Fe-Cr oxide layers formed on stainless steel in superheated steam.