Analysis of time-resolved energy-dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy data for the study of chemical reaction intermediate states

Energy-dispersive X-ray absorption spectroscopy is an increasingly powerful tool for the investigation of kinetic processes in chemical systems as an element-specific local structure and electronic-state probe. Advances in synchrotron radiation sources and detector technology are pushing the time resolution of the method to ever shorter periods, currently milliseconds to microseconds, while also providing a concomitant improvement in data quality that now makes feasible the identification of structural and electronic motifs characteristic of intermediate states in chemical processes. To maximize the value of the newly available high-quality time-resolved data, techniques for consistent data normalization and structural component analysis have been developed and here are illustrated in a model study of the electron-transfer reaction between [IrCl6](2-) with [Co(CN)(5)](3-).