First-principles simulation of X-ray spectra of graphdiyne and graphdiyne oxides at the carbon K-edge

The experimental C 1s near-edge X-ray absorption fine-structure (NEXAFS) spectra of graphdiyne (GDY) show an evident change at different exposure periods, which is explained by oxidation. Herein, to better understand the structure–spectra relationship and the influence of oxidization, we performed a first-principles simulation of the NEXAFS spectra and X-ray photoelectron spectra (XPS) of both pure GDY and its four typical graphdiyne oxides (GDO) at the carbon K-edge. Pure GDY contains one sp2-hybridized (C1) and two sp-hybridized (C2, C3) carbons, while oxidation introduces more nonequivalent carbons. The experimental NEXAFS spectrum exhibits the lowest peak at ca. 285.8 eV. It was found that the C 1s → π* excitation from the sp2-hybridized carbon atoms (C1) in pure GDY and the sp-hybridized atoms (C2, C3) in GDOs contributes to this peak. The two weak resonances at around 289.0 and 290.6 eV in the experiment are contributed by the carbon atoms bonded to the oxygen atoms. Meanwhile, we found that oxidization leads to an increase in the C 1s ionization potentials (IPs) by 0.3–2.7 eV, which is consistent with the XPS experiments. Our calculations provide a clear explanation of the structure–spectra relationships of GDY and GDOs, and the signatures are useful for estimating the degree of oxidation.