Article
pubs.acs.org/JPCC

In Situ Soft X‑ray Absorption Spectroscopy Applied to Solid−Liquid
Heterogeneous Cyanopyrazine Hydration Reaction on Titanium
Oxide Catalyst
Hayato Yuzawa,† Masanari Nagasaka,†,‡ and Nobuhiro Kosugi*,†,‡†

Institute for Molecular Science, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, JapanThe Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Myodaiji, Okazaki 444-8585, Japan‡S Supporting Information*

ABSTRACT: In conventional in situ spectroscopies of solid−liquid heterogeneous
catalytic reactions, it is diﬃcult to measure the conversion of liquid substrates on solid
catalysts due to the lack of sensitivity and the diﬃculty in separation of target signals in the
mixture of substrates, reactants, products, solvents, and solid catalysts. Element-speciﬁc
soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) is a promising method to detect target substrate
and product separately from the other components using chemically diﬀerent inner shell
excitation energies. In the present work, we have developed an in situ sample cell tomeasure time- and temperature-dependent XAS spectra in transmission mode and applied
it to one of the solid−liquid heterogeneous catalytic reactions, cyanopyrazine (PzCN)
hydration to produce pyrazinamide (PzCONH2) on the TiO2 catalyst (PzCN + H2O →PzCONH2). We have succeeded in unambiguous observation of the spectral change in the
C K-edge and N K-edge XAS due to the production of PzCONH2 from PzCN during thereaction regardless of the coexistence of the bulk liquid components, H2O (reactant) andEtOH (solvent). Furthermore, we have obtained reasonable kinetic properties in the
PzCN hydration reaction from the spectral analysis such as the reaction order (ﬁrst order), the rate constant, and the activationenergy. Thus, the present method can be widely applicable to distinguish the minor liquid components in chemical reactions.

1. INTRODUCTION
Investigation of the catalytic reaction mechanism is important toobtain some clue to improvements of catalyst activity, selectivity,
durability, and so on. Spectroscopic observation under the reaction condition (in situ spectroscopy) is one of the most eﬀective
ways to elucidate the mechanism. However, in situ spectroscopy
for solid−liquid heterogeneous catalytic reactions (liquid phasereaction on solid catalyst) is generally diﬃcult to measure due tointerface phenomena between two condensed phases, whichhinder the objective spectral change through the absorption of
the probe light.1,2
In situ spectroscopy of catalysis has been used to study two
types of targets; one is the transformation cycle of the catalyst,
and the other is the conversion process from the substrate to the
product. In the former type for the solid−liquid heterogeneous
catalytic reaction, hard X-ray XAS has been typically used.3−6 In
this target, the energy regions of the absorption light for liquid
substrates and for solid catalysts are generally separable because
the substrates are mostly composed of light elements (C, N, O,etc.), and the solid catalysts contain heavier elements (metalelements). Since the reaction proceeds with the conversion cycleof the surface structure on the catalyst, the spectral change
derived from the catalytic cycle is mainly observed from thephotoabsorption of the (near) surface. The photoabsorption of
the internal bulk solid structure of the catalyst is a main hindrance
in obtaining the target spectral change. Fortunately, the present© 2015 American Chemical Society

catalytic reaction system can reduce this hindrance because
the present nanoparticle catalysts have a higher ratio of surface
vs bulk.
On the other hand, in the latter type for the solid−liquid
heterogeneous catalytic reaction, NMR7−9 and attenuated total
reﬂection IR (ATR-IR)10−14 have been frequently used. In thistarget, since liquid substrate is usually diluted by solventand other reactants, the observation of minor liquid component
in the reaction system is highly required. However, thesemethods have diﬀerent drawback for the detection of minor
liquid substrates. The NMR measurement requires low naturalabundance isotope atoms in most of light elements, and thesensitivity is inevitably low for minor components.15 In the
ATR-IR, many absorption peaks assigned to various vibration
modes exhibit similar wavenumbers, and the objective peaksof minor liquid components are often hindered by other liquidcomponents. The lack of sensitivity and the diﬃculty inseparation of target peaks make diﬃcult the in situ measurementof solid−liquid heterogeneous catalytic reactions. Thus, newmethodologies are still required for the in situ observation of theliquid substrate conversion on the solid catalyst in the realistic
condition.
Received: December 26, 2014
Revised: March 19, 2015
Published: March 20, 2015
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Figure 1. (a) C K-edge XAS spectra of the suspension of PzCN (red line) and PzCONH2 (blue line) and (b) those of the saturated aqueous solution
measured at 298 K. In panel a, the PzCN suspension contains 0.78 M of PzCN, 2.0 M of EtOH, 45 M of H2O, and 3.5 mg/mL of TiO2, and the
PzCONH2 suspension contains 0.19 M of PzCONH2, 43 M of H2O, 4.0 M of EtOH, and 3.5 mg/mL of TiO2. Gray dashed line in panel a is the C K-edge
XAS spectrum of pure EtOH.

absorption measurement of the solid−liquid heterogeneous
catalytic reaction. It is well-known that the nitrile hydration on
solid catalysts selectively proceeds to give the corresponding
amide.34−38 Furthermore, since small particles of solid catalysts
dispersed in liquid have large areas in the solid−liquid interface,
the transmission mode can be an eﬀective method for the measurement of the solid−liquid interface. Thus, we have chosen thehydration reaction of cyanopyrazine (PzCN) to produce
pyrazinamide (PzCONH2) on the TiO2 nanoparticle catalyst(eq 1) as an appropriate reaction for the ﬁrst demonstration ofin situ measurement for the solid−liquid heterogeneous catalytic reaction by using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy intransmission mode. In this reaction system, we have investigatedthe kinetics by the C K-edge and N K-edge XAS of liquid PzCN
under the catalytic reaction.

XAS in the soft X-ray region is a powerful tool to observe local
structures of the light elements in various molecular systems. This method has been already applied to the observationof catalytic reactions such as C K-edge XAS observations ofbenzene oxidation on Pt(111) surface,16 water-gas shift reaction
on CeOx/Au(111),17 and L2,3 edges of Co and Mn XAS observation of reduction behavior for Co/Mn/TiO2 catalysts under
Fischer−Tropsch synthesis.18 However, those targets are only
either gas phase substrates or solid catalysts, and the conversionof liquid substrates on the solid catalyst has not yet been
investigated. Since soft X-rays are strongly absorbed by lightelements such as C, N, and O, it is highly required that the soft
X-rays pass through thin liquid samples below a few micrometers
thickness under the vacuum condition.19 XAS in transmission
mode is a quantitative method to measure the absolute photoabsorption cross section.
XAS spectra of liquid samples can be measured by various
methods, not only transmission mode20 but also ﬂuorescence
yield,21 nonresonant Raman scattering process,22 total electron
yield of liquid microjet,23 and inverse partial ﬂuorescence yield of
liquid microjet.24−27 The latter methods are based on secondary
processes, proportional to the probability of the core holecreation following the X-ray absorption. Their compatibility withthe transmission measurement has been discussed as regards
background subtraction, normalization, and saturation correction. Note that XAS in bulk liquid phase measured by the nonresonant Raman scattering and the inverse partial ﬂuorescence
yield is nearly the same as XAS in transmission mode. The XAS intransmission mode is an eﬀective and simplest method to measure
the time dependence of local structural change in bulk liquid28 andis easily applicable to temperature-dependent measurements,29
which is essential for the analysis of catalytic reaction.
Recently, a liquid ﬂow cell in transmission mode has beensuccessfully developed.30 This liquid cell with two Si3N4 or SiC
membranes is able to control the thickness of the liquid sample
from 20 to 2000 nm under ambient pressure. By using this cell,
we have revealed the local structure of methanol−water binary
solutions from the C and O K-edge XAS31 and the process ofelectrochemical redox reaction of Fe ions in aqueous solutions
from the Fe L-edge XAS.32,33
In the present study, we have applied this in situ transmission
cell to the time- and temperature-dependent soft X-ray

2. EXPERIMENTAL SECTION
2.1. Reagents. TiO2 sample, JRC-TIO-4 (anatase/rutile, 50 ±15 m2 g−1), was supplied by Catalysis Society of Japan. Other reagentswere PzCN (TCI, >97%), PzCONH2 (TCI, >98%), and EtOH (Wako,
99.5%). All these reagents were used without further puriﬁcation.
2.2. Apparatus of Soft X-ray Beamline. The experiments werecarried out on an in-vacuum soft X-ray undulator beamline BL3U in
UVSOR-III Synchrotron. The beamline and the liquid cell for thetransmission mode were previously described in detail.30,39 The liquidcell consists of two Si3N4 membranes for C K-edge XAS or SiC membranes for N K-edge XAS (NTT AT Co., Ltd., thickness: 100 nm,
window size: 2 × 2 mm) and two Teﬂon spacers (thickness: 100 μm).
Soft X-rays under vacuum (region I) pass through the buﬀer region ﬁlledwith He gas (region II) and the liquid thin layer (region III) and ﬁnallyreach a photodiode detector ﬁlled with He gas (region IV). The regions
II and IV are connected and can be mixed with other gas molecules forthe simultaneous photon energy calibration. The region I in vacuum andthe region II and IV in He atmosphere are separated by another Si3N4 or
SiC membrane (thickness: 100 nm; window size: 0.2 × 0.2 mm). A
liquid sample (region III) is sandwiched between the two membranes(Si3N4 or SiC) with pressed the Teﬂon spacers can be substituted byother samples with a tubing pump system. The thickness of the liquidcell (the gap between the two membranes) can be controlled from 2000
to 20 nm with increasing the ﬂowing He pressure in the regions II and IV.
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The temperature of liquid sample in the cell is controlled by thecirculation of a liquid heat carrier, Nybrine Z-1 (MORESCO, main

component: ethylene glycol), around the cell from a thermo-chiller, and
it is monitored by a thermopile.
2.3. In Situ Soft X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy of Catalytic
Reactions. Suspension of the catalytic hydration reaction is prepared by
3.0 mL of PzCN (0.78 M), 35 mL of H2O (45 M), 5.0 mL of EtOH
(2.0 M), and 0.15 g of TiO2 catalyst (3.5 mg/mL). The mixture is stirred
by a magnetic stirrer for 10 min, followed by the sonication for 30 min todisperse the TiO2 catalyst. After the liquid cell ﬁlled with 2.0 M aqueous
EtOH containing 3.5 mg/mL of TiO2 in advance is heated to thereaction temperature (323.2−344.5 K), the 20 mL of suspension is
ﬂowed into the liquid cell at 5.0 mL/min by using the tubing pump.
Then, the measurement of the C K-edge or N K-edge XAS is started
simultaneously with the stop of the ﬂowing. In this procedure, thetemperature of the reaction cell is lower by 4−5 K than the objective one
at the start of the measurement because the prepared suspension(ca. 298 K) is not heated in advance. However, since the liquid cell volume
is very small (at most 1.6 × 10−4 mL) and the temperature of the reaction
system is recovered within 2 min, this decrease in temperature seriously
did not inﬂuence on the entire measurements. In the in situ C K-edge
XAS, the energy scan of soft X-rays from 283 to 289 eV, which takes
14 min, was repeated ten times (totally 140 min) at four diﬀerent
temperatures (323.2, 328.8, 335, and 338.5 K). In the in situ N K-edge
XAS, the energy scan of soft X-rays from 397 to 402 eV, which takes
12 min, was repeated ten times (120 min) at three diﬀerent temperatures (325.1, 331.3, and 344.5 K). The incident photon energies in the C
K-edge XAS and N K-edge XAS were calibrated by the C 1s → 3 pt2

Figure 2. N K-edge XAS spectra of the suspension of PzCN (red line)
and PzCONH2 (blue line) measured at 298 K. The former suspension
contains 0.78 M of PzCN, 2.0 M of EtOH, 45 M of H2O, and 3.5 mg/mLof TiO2, and the latter suspension contains 0.19 M of PzCONH2, 43 M
of H2O, 4.0 M of EtOH, and 3.5 mg/mL of TiO2.

Figure 3. In situ C K-edge XAS spectra of the PzCN hydration reaction on the TiO2 catalyst at (a) 323.2, (b) 328.8, (c) 335, and (d) 338.5 K and(e) diﬀerence spectra between the ﬁnal (126−140 min) and the ﬁrst energy scan (0−14 min) at each temperature. Dashed line in panel e shows the zerodiﬀerence intensity. Each spectrum was measured from 283 to 289 eV for 14 min and shows the observable energy region of the absorption for PzCN
and PzCONH2 (284−287.5 eV). Catalyst (TiO2), 3.5 mg/mL; PzCN, 0.78 M; H2O, 45 M; EtOH (solvent), 2.0 M.
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Figure 5. Fitting analyses for (a) the energy scan of the in situ C K-edge
XAS spectrum from 98 to 112 min at 338.5 K and (b) that of the in situ N
K-edge XAS spectrum from 84 to 96 min at 325.1 K of the PzCN
hydration reaction on the TiO2 catalyst and (c) the obtained fractions of
PzCN and PzCONH2 from the C K-edge XAS spectra at 338.5 K (Figure 3d)and (d) that from the N K-edge XAS spectra at 325.1 K (Figure 4a).

Figure 4. In situ N K-edge XAS spectra of the PzCN hydration reaction
on the TiO2 catalyst at (a) 325.1, (b) 331.3, and (c) 344.5 K and (e)diﬀerence spectra between the ﬁnal (108−120 min) and the ﬁrst energy
scan (0−12 min) at each temperature. Dashed line in panel d shows thezero-diﬀerence intensity. Each spectrum was measured from 397 to 402 eV
for 12 min and shows the observable energy region of the absorption for
PzCN and PzCONH2 (397−401 eV). Catalyst (TiO2), 3.5 mg/mL;
PzCN, 0.78 M; H2O, 45 M; EtOH (solvent), 2.0 M.

C 1s to π*CO in the amide group for PzCONH2 (287.8 eV) are
actually observed (Figure 1b), it gets covered up by the absorption of EtOH.
Figure 2 shows the N K-edge XAS spectra of the PzCN and
PzCONH2 suspensions. PzCN (red line) exhibits two absorption
peaks at 398.5 and 399.5 eV; the 398.5 eV peak is the excitationfrom N 1s to π*orbital in the pyrazine ring,42,43 and the 399.5 eVpeak is the excitation from N 1s to π*CN orbital in the cyanogroup.44 PzCONH2 (blue line) exhibits only the former peak
(398.4 eV) in this energy region. The absorption from N 1s
to π*CO orbital in the amide group has been reported in various amide compounds, e.g., formamide45 and malonamide.46 In
Figure 2, a very small absorption peak corresponding to π*CO is
also observed around 400 eV.15
All the absorption peaks observed in the C K-edge XAS(Figure 1) and N K-edge XAS (Figure 2) do not change in thismeasurement condition for at least 180 min, which is longer than
the investigated catalytic reaction time (120 or 140 min) in thepresent study. This conﬁrms that the subsequent conversion of
PzCN observed as some spectral changes is not derived from theexcitation of the substrate molecules or photocatalysis of TiO2
induced by soft X-rays.
It is notable that XAS can clearly detect the absorption peaks of
PzCN and PzCONH2 although these components are minor in
the prepared suspensions. We have clearly demonstrated that thisfact is proﬁtable by comparing the result of XAS with that of

Rydberg peak of free CH4 molecules (287.99 eV)40 and N 1s → π* peakof free N2 molecules (400.84 eV),41 respectively.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1. In Situ C K-Edge and N K-Edge XAS. Figure 1 shows
the C K-edge XAS spectra of PzCN and PzCONH2 suspensions
containing H2O, solvent EtOH and TiO2 (Figure 1a), and thoseof the saturated aqueous solution (Figure 1b) at room temperature (298 K). In the spectrum of PzCN suspension (Figure 1a,
red line), three absorption peaks (285.4, 286.0, and 286.6 eV) are
observed except for the absorption of EtOH (see the XAS
spectrum of EtOH in gray dashed line). The two peaks at thelower photon energies (285.4 and 286.0 eV) are assigned to theexcitations of carbons in the pyrazine ring from 1s to two π*
orbitals at diﬀerent energy levels according to previous studies of
NEXAFS for pyrazine.42,43 The highest energy peak (286.6 eV)corresponds to the excitation of carbon in the cyano group from1s to π*CN orbital.44 On the other hand, in the spectrum of
PzCONH2 suspension (Figure 1a, blue line), one broad
asymmetric shaped absorption peak (285.3 eV) is only observedin the energy region of carbon in the pyrazine ring. Although theabsorption from C 1s to another π* orbital in pyrazine ring(288.9 eV for PzCN and 288.7 eV for PzCONH2) and that from
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Figure 6. Logarithmic plots of the PzCN fraction obtained from the ﬁtting analysis (Figure 5) for the in situ C K-edge XAS spectra of the PzCN
hydration reaction on the TiO2 catalyst at (a) 323.2, (b) 328.8, (c) 335, and (d) 338.5 K.

since the absorption peak of EtOH is observed in the energy
region higher than 286.4 eV (Figure 1a), the ﬁtting analyses havebeen carried out in the energy region from 284 to 286.4 eV. As aresult, all of the in situ spectra, except for the energy scans of thein situ N K-edge XAS from 84 to 120 min at 344.5 K (Figure 4c)with too small contributions from PzCN, are well ﬁtted by thereference spectra although the spectra should change continuously with the reaction time. This would be because the rate ofspectral change, i.e., the hydration reaction rate, was relatively
small for the energy scan time of the ﬁtting energy region(5.6 min for the C K-edge XAS from 284 to 286.4 eV and 9.6 minfor the N K-edge XAS from 397 to 401 eV). Figures 5c and 5dshow the fractions of PzCN and PzCONH2 obtained from theﬁtted ratio to the reference absorption spectra. The sum of two
components is almost constant (0.96−1.04) and is not timedependent. This indicates each spectrum may be regarded as aspectrum measured every 14 min for the C K-edge XAS andevery 12 min for the N K-edge XAS. Thus, Figure 5 deﬁnitely
shows the conversion process from the substrate PzCN to the
product PzCONH2.
3.2. Kinetics. From the obtained fractions of PzCN and
PzCONH2 with the soft X-ray XAS, we have carried out the
kinetic analysis of the PzCN hydration reaction on the TiO2
catalyst. Figures 6 and 7 show the logarithmic plots of thenormalized fractions of PzCN in Figure 5 for reaction time ateach reaction temperature. All of the plots at each temperatureclearly exhibit a linear relationship.
Considering the reaction mechanism of nitrile hydration on
metal oxides reported in previous studies,34−38 the reaction rate
is able to describe as a ﬁrst order rate eq 2 in the present condition (a detailed explanation about the rate equation of PzCN
hydration reaction is shown in the Supporting Information).

FT-IR spectroscopy. Figure S1 shows the obtained spectra ofpure PzCN and PzCN solution without the TiO2 catalyst byusing the same liquid sample cell. In the present study, the obtained FT-IR spectrum in transmission mode can give equivalent
information to that in ATR-IR, which is the most commonly used
for the solid−liquid heterogeneous catalytic reactions. This isbecause the liquid cell used in the measurement can control the
thickness from 20 to 2000 nm, which is a similar value for the
penetration depth of evanescent IR light in ATR-IR. As a result,
FT-IR cannot detect the absorptions of PzCN (C−H stretching
and CN stretching mode) in the present condition (Figure S1b).
This is not because the intensities of the objective absorption peaks
are lower than each detection limit for the FT-IR spectrometer but
because they are inhibited by the other components (H2O and
EtOH). Thus, XAS has proved to have an advantage to separate
absorption peaks of minor components in the present reaction
system.
Figures 3 and 4 show in situ C K-edge XAS spectra of
the PzCN hydration reaction on the TiO2 catalyst at 323.2(Figure 3a), 328.8 (b), 335 (c) and 338.5 K (d) and in situ N
K-edge XAS spectra at 325.1 (Figure 4a), 331.3 (b), and 344.5 K(c). All the obtained in situ spectra in Figures 3 and 4 vary
the ratio of the absorption peak intensities of PzCN with thereaction time. Furthermore, as shown in the diﬀerence spectra
between the ﬁnal and the ﬁrst energy scans at each temperature(Figures 3e and 4d), the spectral variation rate increases withincreasing the reaction temperature. These results clearly indicate that the conversion of the minor component, PzCN, can be
successfully detected as the spectral change.
When the ﬁtting analysis of the obtained spectra is carried out,
the observed variation is derived from whether the production of
the objective compound or not. Figures 5a and 5b show examples
of ﬁtting analysis for the obtained in situ C K-edge and N K-edge
XAS spectra (Figures 3 and 4) by using the reference spectra of
PzCN and PzCONH2 in Figures 1a and 2. In the C K-edge XAS,

k 3K1K 2C H2O
d[PzCN]=−[PzCN]
dt(1 + K 2C H2O)2
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Figure 7. Logarithmic plots of the PzCN fraction obtained from the ﬁtting analysis (Figure 5) for the in situ N K-edge XAS spectra of the PzCN
hydration reaction on the TiO2 catalyst at (a) 325.1, (b) 331.3, and (c) 344.5 K.

K1, K2, k3, and CH2O correspond to the equilibrium constant for
the adsorption of PzCN, that for the adsorption of H2O on TiO2
surface, the rate constant for the reaction between PzCN andH2O adsorbed on TiO2 surface, and the constant concentrationof H2O, respectively. From eq 2, the relationship between theconcentration of PzCN and reaction time is led to the following
eq 3, which is consistent with the form of the linear relationshipin Figures 6 and 7.
ln

k3K1K 2C H2O[PzCN]= ln(normalized PzCN fraction) = −t[PzCN]0(1 + K 2C H2O)2(3)

Thus, the gradients of the logarithmic plots in Figures 6 and 7 are
expected to be the apparent rate constants corresponding to
k3K1K2CH2O/(1 + K2CH2O)2 at each temperature.
Since the nitrile hydration on the solid catalyst has a single
value of the activation energy in the region of our reaction temperatures,37 the Arrhenius plot obtained from the rate constant of
the hydration reaction should show a linear dependence on 1/T.
In Figures 6 and 7, the rate constant is determined as a gradientof the logarithmic plot for the fraction of the PzCN obtained
from the in situ C K-edge and N K-edge XAS. In Figure 8, theArrhenius plots using the obtained rate constants show a linear
dependence. Then, the apparent activation energy can be evaluated, and the resultant values 77 kJ/mol (C K-edge) and 80 kJ/mol(N K-edge) are comparable with those of the benzonitrile
hydration reaction on Ru(OH)x/Al2O3 catalyst (71.5 kJ/mol)35
and the cyanopyridine hydration reaction on CeO2 catalyst(81.7 kJ/mol for 2-cyanopyridine and 80.7 kJ/mol for 4cyanopyridine).37 Therefore, the obtained rate constants from
Figures 6 and 7 are veriﬁed as reasonable values.
The activation energy from the in situ N K-edge XAS is almost
the same as that from the C K-edge XAS; on the other hand, therate constants from the N K-edge XAS are about 20% larger thanFigure 8. Arrhenius plots for the PzCN hydration reaction on the TiO2
catalyst based on the gradient of logarithmic plots for the PzCN fractionin Figures 6 and 7. Red and blue circles correspond to the data from theC K-edge XAS and the N K-edge XAS, respectively.

those from the C K-edge XAS, as clearly recognized in Figure 8.
This systematic diﬀerence in the rate constant may arise from adiﬀerent experimental condition; namely, diﬀerent liquid cells for
the C K-edge XAS (Si3N4 membrane) and for the N K-edge XAS(SiC membrane). Since TiO2 catalyst was still imperfectly
dispersed into the PzCN solution even after the sonication, TiO2
particles are deposited to some extent on the membrane surface
under the suspension ﬂowing before starting the measurement.
The liquid cell of SiC membrane for the N K-edge XAS would
contain larger quantity of TiO2 catalysts and exhibit the higher
reaction rate.

4. CONCLUSION
We have successfully performed in situ observation of the solid−
liquid heterogeneous catalytic reaction, PzCN hydration reaction
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on TiO2, by using soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy intransmission mode.
(i) Compared with the commonly used spectroscopies (e.g.,
ATR-IR, NMR), the merit of this method for the PzCN
hydration reaction is the separable detection of the conversion of
the minor liquid component under the reaction condition.
Especially, the hindrance of bulk liquid water can be perfectly
removed. Furthermore, separation of the minor component ismore advantageous when the substrate organic compound contains heteroatoms (N atom in this study). (ii) Analyses of thein situ spectra can give the information about the reaction kinetics(rate order and constant and activation energy).
In the future, we will try to detect the interaction between
liquid substrate and solid catalyst, intermediate species, and theeﬀect of solvent under the reaction.

■

ASSOCIATED CONTENT

S Supporting Information*

Comparison of soft X-ray XAS with FT-IR spectroscopy in the
PzCN solution and the pure PzCN (Figure S1); explanation ofrate equation for PzCN hydration reaction based on its reaction
mechanism (Figure S2). This material is available free of charge
via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

■

AUTHOR INFORMATION

Corresponding Author*E-mail: kosugi@ims.ac.jp (N.K.).
Notes

The authors declare no competing ﬁnancial interest.

■

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank the staﬀ members of the UVSOR-III facility for theirkind support. This work was ﬁnancially supported by JSPS
Grants-in-Aid for Scientiﬁc Research (A) (Grants 23245007 and
26248010), that for Young Scientists (B) (26810010), and thatfor JSPS fellows (26-7798).

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