Time-dependent X-ray absorption spectroscopic (XAS) study on the transformation of zinc basic salt into bis(N-oxopyridine-2-thionato) zinc (II)

Solid transchelation reaction was established for the synthesis of bis(N-oxopyridine-2-thionato) zinc (II), commonly known as zinc pyrithione (ZPT), to control particle size using zinc basic salt (ZBS) and aqueous sodium pyrithione solution. Distinguished from ZPT particles prepared by usual precipitation reaction, the obtained ZPT nanoparticles exhibited very narrow size distribution. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at Zn K-edge was systematically examined to elucidate time-dependent local structural evolution during solid transchelation reaction. X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) analysis clearly revealed that local environment around zinc atoms transformed into pentahedron as reaction proceeded. Based on quantitative X-ray diffraction and XANES analysis, we made structural models. Theoretical XAS spectrum calculated with FEFF code could reproduce experimental one, suggesting that XAS analysis could be very powerful tool to probe phase transformation. Furthermore, according to extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) fitting results, Zn-O distance in reaction products gradually increased from 1.96 to 2.07 Å, suggesting that zinc atoms bounded with oxygen ones in ZBS were transchelated with pyrithione ligands. This study could be a strong evidence for the usefulness of XAS to study time-dependent structural transformation of nanocrystalline materials.