Printed and unprinted office paper, by near-ambient pressure XPS

Near-ambient pressure x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (NAP-XPS) is a less-traditional form of XPS that allows samples to be analyzed at relatively high pressures, i.e., at ca. 2500 Pa, or even higher in some cases. With NAP-XPS, XPS can probe moderately volatile liquids, biological samples, porous materials, and/or polymeric materials that outgas significantly. In this submission, the authors show NAP-XPS survey spectra, and C 1s and O 1s narrow scans of two samples of paper (a white office paper and the nonsticky side of a yellow post-it note). The white office paper was analyzed at three specific positions: an unprinted portion, a light blue letter, and a dark blue letter in the “SPECS” logo. Survey spectra show the presence of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and calcium in all the samples. The yellow paper shows a small amount of silicon. Fits to the C 1s and O 1s regions are shown. The O 1s narrow scans are fit with four peaks using a literature approach previously employed for paper and with three peaks in a more ad hoc fashion. The latter approach yields better fits.