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Pulsed CO2 electroreduction (CO2RR) has recently emerged as a facile way to in situ tune the product selectivity, in particular toward ethanol, without re-designing the catalytic system. However, in-depth mechanistic understanding requires comprehensive operando time-resolved studies to identify the kinetics and dynamics of the electrocatalytic interface. Here, we track the adsorbates and the catalyst state of pre-reduced Cu2O nanocubes ( ~ 30 nm) during pulsed CO2RR using sub-second time-resolved operando Raman spectroscopy. By screening a variety of product-steering pulse length conditions, we unravel the critical role of co-adsorbed OH and CO on the Cu surface next to the oxidative formation of Cu-Oad or CuOx/(OH)y species, impacting the kinetics of CO adsorption and boosting the ethanol selectivity. However, a too low OHad coverage following the formation of bulk-like Cu2O induces a significant increase in the C1 selectivity, while a too high OHad coverage poisons the surface for C-C coupling. Thus, we unveil the importance of co-adsorbed OH on the alcohol formation under CO2RR conditions and thereby, pave the way for improved catalyst design and operating conditions.

Although Cu/ZnO-based catalysts have been long used for the hydrogenation of CO2 to methanol, open questions still remain regarding the role and the dynamic nature of the active sites formed at the metal-oxide interface. Here, we apply high-pressure operando spectroscopy methods to well-defined Cu and Cu0.7Zn0.3 nanoparticles supported on ZnO/Al2O3, γ-Al2O3 and SiO2 to correlate their structure, composition and catalytic performance. We obtain similar activity and methanol selectivity for Cu/ZnO/Al2O3 and CuZn/SiO2, but the methanol yield decreases with time on stream for the latter sample. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy data reveal the formation of reduced Zn species coexisting with ZnO on CuZn/SiO2. Near-ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy shows Zn surface segregation and the formation of a ZnO-rich shell on CuZn/SiO2. In this work we demonstrate the beneficial effect of Zn, even in diluted form, and highlight the influence of the oxide support and the Cu-Zn interface in the reactivity.

The oxygen evolution reaction has an important role in many alternative-energy schemes because it supplies the protons and electrons required for converting renewable electricity into chemical fuels.sup.1-3. Electrocatalysts accelerate the reaction by facilitating the required electron transfer.sup.4, as well as the formation and rupture of chemical bonds.sup.5. This involvement in fundamentally different processes results in complex electrochemical kinetics that can be challenging to understand and control, and that typically depends exponentially on overpotential.sup.1,2,6,7. Such behaviour emerges when the applied bias drives the reaction in line with the phenomenological Butler-Volmer theory, which focuses on electron transfer.sup.8, enabling the use of Tafel analysis to gain mechanistic insight under quasi-equilibrium.sup.9-11 or steady-state assumptions.sup.12. However, the charging of catalyst surfaces under bias also affects bond formation and rupture.sup.13-15, the effect of which on the electrocatalytic rate is not accounted for by the phenomenological Tafel analysis.sup.8 and is often unknown. Here we report pulse voltammetry and operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements on iridium oxide to show that the applied bias does not act directly on the reaction coordinate, but affects the electrocatalytically generated current through charge accumulation in the catalyst. We find that the activation free energy decreases linearly with the amount of oxidative charge stored, and show that this relationship underlies electrocatalytic performance and can be evaluated using measurement and computation. We anticipate that these findings and our methodology will help to better understand other electrocatalytic materials and design systems with improved performance. Spectroscopic studies and theoretical calculations of the electrocatalytic oxygen evolution reaction establish that reaction rates depend on the amount of charge stored in the electrocatalyst, and not on the applied potential., Author(s): Hong Nhan Nong [sup.1] [sup.2] , Lorenz J. Falling [sup.3] , Arno Bergmann [sup.4] , Malte Klingenhof [sup.1] , Hoang Phi Tran [sup.1] , Camillo Spöri [sup.1] , Rik [...]

Water electrolysis to produce 'green H2' with renewable energy is a promising option for the upcoming green economy. However, the slow and complex oxygen evolution reaction at the anode limits the efficiency. Co3O4 with added iron is a capable catalyst for this reaction, but the role of iron is presently unclear. To investigate this topic, we compare epitaxial Co3O4(111), CoFe2O4(111), and Fe3O4(111) thin film model electrocatalysts, combining quasi in-situ preparation and characterization in ultra-high vacuum with electrochemistry experiments. The well-defined composition and structure of the thin epitaxial films permits the obtention of quantitatively comparable results. CoFe2O4(111) is found to be up to about four times more active than Co3O4(111) and about nine times more than Fe3O4(111), with the activity depending acutely on the Co/Fe concentration ratio. Under reaction conditions, all three oxides are covered by oxyhydroxide. For CoFe2O4(111), the oxyhydroxide's Fe/Co concentration ratio is stabilized by partial iron dissolution. Cobalt-based oxidic anodes with added iron are good electrocatalysts for alkaline oxygen evolution reaction, but the role of iron is still unclear. Here the authors investigate oxygen evolution reaction activity of three well-defined epitaxial thin-film electrodes to address this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced in situ X‐ray absorption spectroscopy characterization of electrochemically co‐electrodeposited bi‐element copper alloy electrodes shows that zinc yields the formation of a stable cationic Cu species during the electroreduction of CO2 at high cathodic polarization. In contrast, the formation/stabilization of cationic Cu species in copper oxides, or doping Cu with another element, like Ni, is not possible. It is found that the pure and mixed Cu:Zn electrodes behave similarly in term of electrocatalytic selectivity to multi‐carbon products. At higher Zn concentrations the electrode behaves like the pure Zn catalyst, which indicates that the Cu cationic species do not have a significant influence on the selectivity to multi‐carbon products. It is found that in the non‐monotonically distribution of products is dominated in term of surface energy in which copper prefers the surface. Otherwise, this work highlights the importance of in situ characterization to uncover the mechanisms mediating the catalytic reactions in contrast to ex situ or post mortem analysis, which can be a source of misinterpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Detailed knowledge about the relationship between the electronic structure and the catalytic properties of a material is a fundamental brick to rationally design better oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. Here, resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES) is used to elucidate the electronic structure and active state of the most broadly employed OER catalyst, Ni–Fe (oxy)hydroxides. We implemented a graphene-capped catalyst-coated ionomer membrane approach. Starting from a well-characterized iron nickel oxide precursor, the changes in the electronic structure of oxygen and nickel species with different applied electrode potentials were studied. In particular, RPES measurements helped to distinguish between formal Ni3+ and Ni4+ species emerging upon catalyst oxidation, which indicate charge accumulation in adjacent hole states. Based on RPES, the core-level binding energy and partial electron yield absorption spectroscopy (PEY-XAS), we identify the contributions to the oxygen partial density of states (p-DOS) that are crucial for OER catalysis. Our results reveal the occurrence of metal–oxygen hybridized holes, which we can correlate to the Fermi-level at oxidizing potentials. These states potentially promote the active sites as indirect electron acceptors. The nature of this metal–oxygen charge redistribution influencing catalytically active surface-structure motifs is crucial for the formation of OER intermediates. Our findings allow the role of metal and oxygen species in the OER mechanism from the viewpoint of electronic structure to be revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]