3905851

Combining surface science, electrochemistry, and computational modeling to investigate nanoparticle electrocatalysts

Date
August 16, 2023
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We used a combination of ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) surface science techniques, electrochemical measurements, and computational modeling to investigate nanoparticle electrocatalysts in oxygen evolution reactions (OER) and CO2 reduction reactions (CO2RR). Well-defined nanoparticle electrocatalysts, including Fe2O3, NiFeOx, and Ag, were grown on substrates in the UHV chamber and characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). These electrocatalysts were then tested in electrochemical cells to establish the structure-property relationships in OER and CO2RR. Based on our experimental and computational results, we identified that the edge sites of Fe2O3 grown on Au(111) were the most active toward OER and incorporation of Ni at the edge sites (NiFeOx) further boosted their OER activity. We also resolved the size-dependent electrocatalytic CO2-to-CO conversion of the Ag nanoparticle electrocatalysts with average particle diameter between 2 to 6 nm: smaller diameter (< 3 nm) particles favored H2 evolution reaction (HER) due to a high population of Ag edge sites, whereas larger diameter particles favored CO2RR as the population of Ag(100) surface sites grew. We further discovered that electronic interactions between small diameter Ag particles and highly defective carbon supports could break the size-dependent CO2RR reactivity, resulting in highly selective (CO Faradaic Efficiency > 90%) and active Ag nanoparticle electrocatalysts with sizes < 2 nm diameter.

Presenter

Speaker Image for Xingyi Deng
Sr. Research Scientist, National Energy Technology Laboratory

Speakers

Speaker Image for Thuy Duong Nguyen Phan
National Energy Technology Laboratory
Speaker Image for Douglas Kauffman
National Energy Technology Laboratory

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