Perspective Synchrotron Mössbauer Spectroscopy Applications in Advanced Studies of Catalysts, Environmental and Energy Materials

When the energy of synchrotron radiation (SR) is selected to coincide with the energy of a nuclear Mössbauer transition, the phenomenon of so-called γ-resonance may take place. The selected narrow-band SR becomes capable to excite the nuclei, in a way that offer the great opportunity to exploit the special properties of the synchrotron radiation, which differ strikingly from the properties of the radiation generated by the radioactive sources used in laboratory setup for Mössbauer spectroscopy. The main advantages of the SR compared to γ- radiation from radioactive sources are the extreme brilliance, polarization, pulsed temporal structure and the directional nature, which allows us to apply the stringent linear or point-like collimation to obtain the microscopic spatial resolution, that is of extraordinary importance to study the particulate matter in ecology topics, environmental science and extra-terrestrial samples. The energy resolution can be improved as well, up to twice, because the source-induced broadening is no longer included in the time-domain experimental scheme. The energy-domain spectra obtained with SMS possess no improved energy resolution, but their very high count-rate allows us to obviate the frequently used methodology of isotopic enrichment of synthetic catalysts and materials for green energy generation. It is often most important to study the natural unenriched materials, exactly same which applied in industry, avoiding the home-made samples that may differ from the industrial ones. Finally, the dynamics of atomic lattices and subsystems available via inelastic and quasi-elastic scattering of synchrotron radiation is entirely new knowledge as the corresponding Doppler velocities are not achievable at a laboratory instruments.