Iron-doped nickel oxyhydroxides, Nix(Fe1-x)OyHz, are among the most promising oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts in alkaline environments. Although iron (Fe) significantly enhances the catalytic activity, there is still no clear consensus on whether Fe directly participates in the reaction or merely acts as a promoter. To elucidate the Fe’s role, we performed operando X-ray spectroscopy studies supported by DFT on Nix(Fe1-x)OyHz electrocatalysts. We probed the reversible changes in the structure and electronic character of Nix(Fe1-x)OyHz as the electrode potential is cycled between the resting (here at 1.10 VRHE) and operational states (1.66 VRHE). DFT calculations and XAS simulations on a library of Fe structures in various NiOyHz environments are in favor of a distorted local octahedral Fe(III)O3(OH)3 configuration at the resting state with the NiOyHz scaffold going from α-Ni(OH)2 to γ-NiOOH as the potential is increased. Under catalytic conditions, EXAFS and HERFD spectra reveal changes in p-d mixing (covalency) relative to the resting state between O/OH ligands and Fe leading to a shift from octahedral to square pyramidal coordination at the Fe site. XES measurements and theoretical simulations further support that the Fe equilibrium structure remains in a formal Fe(III) state under both resting and operational conditions. These spectral changes are attributed to potential dependent structural rearrangements around Fe. The results suggest that ligand dissociation leads to the C4v symmetry as the most stable intermediate of the Fe during OER. This implies that Fe has a weakly coordinated or easily dissociable ligand that could serve to coordinate the O-O bond formation and, tentatively, play an active role in the Nix(Fe1-x)OyHz electrocatalyst.

Controlled electrochemical oxidation of hydrocarbons to desired products is an attractive approach in catalysis. Here we study the electrochemical propene oxidation under operando conditions using Pd L-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) as a sensitive probe to elucidate surface processes occurring during catalysis. Together with ab initio multiple-scattering calculations, our XAS results enable assignment of characteristic changes of the Pd L-edge intensity and energy position in terms of a mechanistic understanding of the selective oxidation of propene. The results, supported by electrochemical density functional theory DFT simulations, show that in the potential range of 0.8–1.0 V vs. the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE), selective oxidation of propene to acrolein and acrylic acid occurs on the metallic Pd surface. These reactions are proposed to proceed via the Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism. In contrast, for the potential range of 1.1–1.3 V vs. RHE, selective oxidation of propene to propylene glycol takes place on a Pd oxide surface.

A femtosecond laser process is presented increasing the surface area of copper electrocatalysts for an electrochemical CO₂ reduction reaction (CO₂RR). The laser treatment allows us to tune the surface morphology and the chemical composition of the copper electrocatalysts. This tunability is used to correlate the role of the surface area and catalyst dopants with the selectivity of the CO₂RR. The liquid products of the CO₂RR are monitored through ex situ nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The products’ distribution shows that the electrode surface area plays a key role in the electrochemical conversion of CO₂ into multicarbon liquid products. We show that sulfur dopants boost the production of formate. Remarkably, by co-doping sulfur and fluoride, we show that the chalcogenide dopant counteracts the known boosting effect of fluoride to convert CO₂ into multicarbon products. Oxygen doping in the range of 2–19 atom % does not significantly affect the distribution of liquid products from CO₂ electroreduction. In a broad perspective, this work highlights the potential of the femtosecond laser process to fine-tune surfaces to produce photo- and electrocatalyst materials.

Efficient oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts are pivotal for sustainable fuel production, where the Ni-Fe oxyhydroxide (OOH) is among the most active catalysts for alkaline OER. Electrolyte alkali metal cations have been shown to modify the activity and reaction intermediates, however, the exact mechanism is at question due to unexplained deviations from the cation size trend. Our X-ray absorption spectroelectrochemical results show that bigger cations shift the Ni2+/(3+delta)+ redox peak and OER activity to lower potentials (however, with typical discrepancies), following the order CsOH>NaOH approximate to KOH>RbOH>LiOH. Here, we find that the OER activity follows the variations in electrolyte pH rather than a specific cation, which accounts for differences both in basicity of the alkali hydroxides and other contributing anomalies. Our density functional theory-derived reactivity descriptors confirm that cations impose negligible effect on the Lewis acidity of Ni, Fe, and O lattice sites, thus strengthening the conclusions of an indirect pH effect. It is commonly accepted that electrolyte alkali metal cations modify the catalytic activity for oxygen evolution reaction. Here the authors challenge this assumption, showing that the activity is actually affected by a change in the electrolyte pH rather than a specific alkali cation.

The slow kinetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is the main cause of energy loss in many low temperature energy storage techniques, such as metal air batteries and water splitting. A better understanding of both the OER mechanism and the degradation mechanism on different transition metal (TM) oxides is critical for the development of the, next generation of oxides as OER catalysts. In this paper, we systematically investigated the catalytic mechanism and lifetime of ABO(3-delta) perovskite catalysts for the OER, where A = Sr or Ca and B = Fe or Co. During the OER process, the Fe-based AFeO(3-delta) oxides with (delta approximate to 0.5 demonstrate no activation of lattice oxygen or pH dependence of the OER activity, which is different from the SrCoO25 with similar oxygen 2p-band position relative to the Fermi level. The difference was attributed to the larger changes in the electronic structure during the transition from the oxygen-deficient brownmillerite structure to the fully oxidized perovskite structure and the poor conductivity in Fe-based oxides, which hinders the uptake of oxygen from the electrolyte to the lattice under oxidative potentials. The low stability of Fe-based perovskites under OER conditions in a basic electrolyte also contributes to the different OER mechanism compared with the Co-based perovskites. This work reveals the influence of TM composition and electronic structure on the catalytic mechanism and operational stability of the perovskite OER catalysts.

Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) electrodes exhibit higher activity than pristine copper during the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) and higher selectivity toward ethylene. The presence of residual subsurface oxygen in OD-Cu has been proposed to be responsible for such improvements, although its stability under the reductive CO2RR conditions remains unclear. This work sheds light on the nature and stability of subsurface oxygen. Our spectroscopic results show that oxygen is primarily concentrated in an amorphous 1-2 nm thick layer within the Cu subsurface, confirming that subsurface oxygen is stable during CO2RR for up to 1 h at -1.15 V vs RHE. Besides, it is associated with a high density of defects in the OD-Cu structure. We propose that both low coordination of the amorphous OD-Cu surface and the presence of subsurface oxygen that withdraws charge from the copper sp- and d-bands might selectively enhance the binding energy of CO.

RuO2 catalysts exhibit record activities toward the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), which is crucial to enable efficient and sustainable energy storage. Here we examine the RuO2 OER kinetics on rutile (110), (100), (101), and (111) orientations, finding (100) the most active. We assess the potential involvement of lattice oxygen in the OER mechanism with online electrochemical mass spectrometry, which showed no evidence of oxygen exchange on these oriented facets in acidic or basic electrolytes. Similar results were obtained for polyoriented RuO2 films and particles, in contrast to previous work, suggesting lattice oxygen is not exchanged in catalyzing OER on crystalline RuO2 surfaces. This hypothesis is supported by the correlation of activity with the number of active Ru-sites calculated by density functional theory, where more active facets bind oxygen more weakly. This new understanding of the active sites provides a design strategy to enhance the OER activity of RuO2 nanoparticles by facet engineering.

Oxide-derived copper (OD-Cu) catalysts are promising candidates for the electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction (CO2RR) due to the enhanced selectivity toward ethylene over methane evolution, which has been linked to the presence of subsurface oxygen (O-sb). In this work, O-sb is investigated with theoretical methods. Although O-sb is unstable in slab models, it becomes stabilized within a manually reduced OD-Cu nanocube model which was calculated by self-consistent charge density functional tight binding (SCC-DFTB). The results obtained with SCC-DFTB for the full nanocube were confirmed with subcluster models extracted from the nanocube, calculated with both density functional theory (DFT) and SCC-DFTB. The. higher stability of O-sb in the nanocube is attributed to the disordered structure and greater flexibility. The adsorption strength of CO on Cu(100) is enhanced by O-sb withdrawing electron density from the Cu atom, resulting in reduction of the sigma-repulsion. Hence, the coverage of CO may be increased, facilitating its dimerization.