Compounds of iron with oxygen are relevant for many processes - from the transport of oxygen in the blood to the corrosion of iron. However, many aspects of iron-oxygen chemistry are not yet fully understood. It is generally believed that the magnetic orientations of the electrons involved - the so-called spin state - also play an important role, e.g. in catalytic processes. Using X-ray emission spectroscopy (XES), the team led by Serena DeBeer from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion at the FXE experiment station of the European XFEL in Schenefeld near Hamburg wants to investigate this question.

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