Hard x-ray induced synthesis of OF2

We sought to demonstrate that hard x-rays can initiate a sequence of acatalytic photochemical reactions with the aim of creating molecular mixtures (O2 and F2) and then observe the two species react to form OF2 and with little introduction of heat. Two x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) studies of 1. KBF4 and 2. a mixture of KBF4 + KlO4 pressurized to 3 GPa in a diamond anvil cell (DAC) at ambient temperature at the 16 ID-D undulator beamline at the Advanced Photon Source. The spectrometer collected photons with energy losses around 680 eV near the fluorine K-edge. Fluorine K-edge x-ray Raman spectroscopy demonstrated the clear formation of a new peak near 682 eV energy loss after some 8 hours of irradiation and detection of the KBF4/KClO4 mixture which likely represents OF2 produced from the following reaction: O2+2F2 -> 2OF2 following irradiation of the mixture to release O2 and F2, respectively. from each constituent.