Oxygen electrodes are playing a key role in electrochemical energy conversion devices such as fuel cells and water electrolyzers. In both acidic and alkaline environment, both the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reaction (ORR and OER), respectively, are limiting the overall energy/voltage efficiency due to its sluggish kinetics. [1, 2]
Whereas in acidic environment, mainly precious metals are used to catalyze the ORR (e.g., Pt or its alloys) or the OER (e.g., IrO₂ ), the variety of possible catalysts in alkaline electrolyte is significantly increased and also many metal oxide based systems can be employed. Generally the oxygen reduction or evolution mechanisms are only partly understood independent of the electrolyte environment and material used.
In this contribution, some new light will be shed on the electrocatalysis of oxide based systems used in acidic and alkaline environment for the ORR and OER. Similarities and differences as compared to noble metal based systems will be provided supplemented with theoretical considerations.
References
[1] A. Rabis, P. Rodriguez, T.J. Schmidt, ACS Catal., 2012, 2 (5), 864-890
[2] E. Fabbri, A. Habereder, K. Waltar, R. Kötz, T.J. Schmidt, Cat. Sci. Tech., 2014, 4, 3800-3821

Electrochemical water splitting driven by a renewable energy source such as wind or solar, is a promising method to produce hydrogen. Already an important chemical commodity in industry, hydrogen may also potentially be used as a carbon-free fuel. However, the efficiency of electrochemical water splitting is severely limited by the high overpotential costs required for the oxygen evolution half reaction (OER). In order to develop active nonprecious metal-based electrocatalysts for the OER, a better understanding of the activity of transition metal catalysts is needed. Previous studies have shown that depositing transition metal catalysts on metal supports leads to formation of different oxide phases and significantly higher activities.^{1, 2}
In this work we investigate the interaction between manganese oxide (MnO_x) and noble metals to determine the effect on oxidation state and catalytic activity. Beginning with a study on the interaction of MnO_x with gold (Au), we characterize the catalyst using SEM and ex situ L-edge x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to determine the morphology and oxidation state.³ As a surface sensitive technique, ex situ XAS provides information on the oxidation state of the surface atoms of the MnO_x nanoparticles both alone and in the presence of Au. Electrochemical characterization of this system shows that adding Au to MnO_x greatly increases the activity for the OER and results in an order of magnitude higher turnover frequency compared to MnO_x without Au. Finally, in situ XAS studies provide insight into the oxidation state of the MnO_x both with and without Au under OER operating conditions. Expanding this study to characterize the interaction of MnO_x with other noble metals provides insight to trends with respect to the effect on OER activity.
REFERENCES:
1. Yeo, B.S. & Bell, A.T. Enhanced Activity of Gold-Supported Cobalt Oxide for the Electrochemical Evolution of Oxygen. J Am Chem Soc133, 5587-5593 (2011).
2. Yeo, B.S. & Bell, A.T. In Situ Raman Study of Nickel Oxide and Gold-Supported Nickel Oxide Catalysts for the Electrochemical Evolution of Oxygen. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C116, 8394-8400 (2012).
3. Gorlin, Y. et al. Understanding Interactions between Manganese Oxide and Gold That Lead to Enhanced Activity for Electrocatalytic Water Oxidation. J Am Chem Soc136 (2014).

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is regarded as a major bottleneck in the overall water splitting process due to the slow transfer rate of four electrons and the high activation energy barrier for O-O bond formation. For the decades, Ir, Ru and Pt based inorganic materials have presented efficient catalytic activity with high turnover frequency (TOF) under mild conditions. However, its scarcity and high cost still inspire to develop inexpensive and sustainable catalysts. The cubane Mn₄CaO₅ clusters inside biological photosystem II (PS II) can oxidize water using a much smaller overpotential than required by manmade catalysts. Inspired by this attractive feature of Mn₄CaO₅ cluster, intense effort has been dedicated to develop non-precious metal-based water oxidation catalysts. Unfortunately, except for several rare-earth metal-based catalysts, there have been few candidate catalysts that operate under near neutral condition until now.
In this study, we discovered a new Mn-based catalyst that efficiently performs water oxidation catalysis. For conventional manganese oxide catalysts, up to now, the significantly reduced activity under neutral conditions is an unresolved issues. The instability of Mn (III) species at neutral pH is considered as a critical factor in this degradation. Here, we made the breakthrough of a Mn-based water oxidation catalysis that operates under neutral conditions using well-designed monodisperse manganese oxide nanoparticles. Facile surface treatment method was newly adopted and oxidized Mn(III) species were intentionally generated and stabilized on the manganese oxide surface. Various electrochemical methods and in-situ XAS analysis revealed the superior catalytic performance of partially oxidized manganese oxide NCs.

Complex perovskite oxides are considered as the promising candidates of bifunctional catalysts for high catalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER). As another class of oxide-based catalyst, Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3-d (BSCF5582) is a widely known perovskite oxide as a strong candidate of catalyst in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) cathode materials, metal-air batteries and other energy related systems. We report herein the heat treating effect of the BSCF5582 in oxygen atmosphere at 950 °C as a function of annealing time on the electrocatalytic performance, compared with pristine BSCF5582. The pristine BSCF5582 sample was calcined at 1050 °C for 5h in air (BSCF5582), and the heated BSCF5582 sample was prepared by heat-heating the pristine BSCF5582 in oxygen atmosphere at 950°C as a function of annealing time (O₂-BSCF5582). The heat treatment effect of the complex Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3-d (BSCF5582) perovskite in oxygen atmosphere at 950°C (O₂-BSCF5582) on the electrocatalytic performances of ORR and OER was investigated. During heat-treatment in oxygen atmosphere, the crystallinity of the overall cubic perovskite structure was enhanced, and, most of all, a nanoscale thick surface layer, which is located between ~30 nm thick amorphous surface layer and particle matrix, was not any more observed. The electrocatalytic performance of BSCF5582 catalyst both in oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) was improved significantly. The mechanism of such microstructural- and electrochemical- improvement was explained by correlating with the effect of monitoring the surface chemistry and structure in this paper.

Perovskite (ABO₃) based mixed metal oxides were widely studied over last several decades as electrocatalysts for high-temperature fuel cell electrodes due to their mixed electronic/ionic conductivities at high temperatures (>700^oC). The perovskites formed of lanthanide (at A-site)-transition element (on B-site) metal complex have been recognized as efficient electrocatalysts for Oxygen Reduction Reactions (ORR) and/or Oxygen Evolution Reactions (ORR) in alkaline electrolyte. However, the electrochemical performance and stability of these catalysts depends on the choice of the type of A- and B-cations. Additionally, oxygen deficiencies created in mixed perovskite-phase (AA&’BB&’O_3-δ) by partial substitution of less valent cations on A- and/or B-site are believed to contribute significantly towards ORR/OER due to their oxygen-exchange redox behavior. In this regard, mixed perovskites formed by praseodymium (Pr) and samarium (Sm) based nickel-cobaltites such as PrNi_xCo_1-xO_3-δ and SmNi_xCo_1-xO_3-δ were considered as electrocatalysts for ORR and OER.
Praseodymium and samarium based mixed-perovskites with x= 0.1, 0.5, 0.9 have been synthesized using a modified nitrate-glycine Pechini method and heat-treated in air at 900°C and 1200°C. X-ray diffraction studies of the resultant materials show that a combination of mixed metal oxide structures such as perovskite, layered Ruddleston-Popper (A₂BO_4-δ) and spinel (ABO₃) depend on heat-treatment temperatures and relative composition of Ni and Co. For example, spinel and individual metal oxides were yielded at x=0.1, whereas a combination of perovskite, layered Ruddleston-Popper phases were developed at x=05 and 0.9. A combination of Temperature Programmed Reduction (TPR) and Thermo-Gravimetric (TG) analysis was further employed to understand the structural changes and accurate oxygen content in these materials as a function of the heat-treatment temperature. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and BET single point specific surface area (SSA) were used to determine morphology of the materials. In order to improve electronic conductivity, the perovskite-graphene composites were synthesized by dispersing metal oxides onto graphene platelets (90 wt. %). Electrochemical performance of these mixed-perovskite/graphene composites towards ORR and OER were studied in three-electrode configuration in alkaline medium. The structure dependent electrochemical behavior of these composites as a function of relative composition of Ni_x-Co_1-x (x= 0.1, 0.5 and 0.9) for the applications of alkaline fuel cells and metal-air battery cathode materials will be presented.

Hydrogen generation via electrolysis is rapidly gaining international interest for energy storage applications due to the ability of this technology to cross-link different infrastructures such as the electrical grid, transportation, and chemical processing. For example, generating hydrogen from peak wind power which would otherwise be a stranded resource can reduce the cost of hydrogen for fuel cell vehicles, in a completely green alternative to reformation of natural gas. Electrolysis based on ion exchange membranes offers several advantages vs. traditional liquid electrolyte systems that use concentrated potassium hydroxide. Proton exchange membrane (PEM)-based electrolysis technology is commercially mature, and can provide higher turndown capability, lack of corrosive electrolyte, and system simplicity and ease of maintenance. PEM electrolysis is already cost competitive on an equal output capacity basis vs. other sources of hydrogen for industrial applications, but overall lifecycle cost needs to be reduced for energy markets.
The oxygen evolution reaction is a key efficiency loss in electrolyzers, typically contributing over 300 mV of overpotential in proton exchange membrane systems. In addition, the catalyst loading is very high, due to the lack of stability of most catalyst supports in acidic environments at electrolysis potentials. While catalyst cost is not currently a key driver in the overall system cost, as other costs are decreased through system scale up and improvement in other processes, improving catalyst utilization needs to be improved in parallel to meet overall cost targets. Therefore, research must focus not only on composition of the catalyst but also electrode structure and application method. Proton has shown that catalyst composition, process conditions, and electrode formulation can all improve performance vs. current commercial baselines. Catalyst loadings also have the potential to be significantly decreased without loss in performance.
Anion exchange membrane (AEM) technology is still immature, but could enable much less expensive materials of construction in the cell stack, such as the bipolar plate and catalyst. Recent work in AEMs has improved durability and provided promise for eventual systems based on this technology as well. In alkaline environments, there should be a substantially larger choice of stable and high activity catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction. Catalysts based on nickel and other first row transition elements for oxygen evolution in alkaline solution are well known. However, translation from solution data to membrane electrode assemblies with solid electrolyte has been challenging. This talk will describe advancements and potential directions in these areas for electrolysis based on both PEM and AEM systems. Progress and next steps needed in this area of study will also be described.

Nanoparticulate metal-oxide catalysts are among the most prevalent systems for alkaline water oxidation. However, comparisons of the electrochemical performance of these materials has been challenging due to the numerous methods of attachment and catalyst loadings used in the literature. Herein, we have identified a conventional drop-casting method that ensures adhesion of the catalysts and consistently applied to a variety of metal oxides for water oxidation reactions in alkaline condition. The nanoparticulate materials were characterized using XRD, XPS, BET, and SEM. The activity and Tafel slopes of the nanoparticulate catalysts attached by this method have been compared directly to similar systems synthesized by different methods such as electrodeposition, sputtering, etc. A brief discussion of the differences and similarities in the surface area as measured by BET and determined from the double-layer capacitance of the system is also provided.

Fuel cells, including proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), have recently been considered as potential power sources for both electric vehicles and portable electronics since they could potentially fulfill the requirements of high energy and power density, high efficiency and low or zero emission simultaneously. One current bottleneck for building high energy-conversion efficiency fuel cells lies on the sluggish kinetics of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) at the cathode side.^[3] Therefore, development of efficient electrocatalysts for ORR becomes the focal task and main challenge in fuel cells research. Traditionally, platinum (Pt) and Pt-based alloys have been intensively investigated as the most active ORR electrocatalysts. However, Pt-based electrocatalysts suffer from various limiting factors including prohibitive cost, element scarcity and the declining activity caused by methanol crossover, which highly hinder the scalable applications of fuel cells. Therefore, it is highly desirable to develop efficient ORR electrocatalysts based on non-precious metals and with high methanol-tolerance.
Mixed valence oxides involving transition metals have been considered as an important class of possible alternatives that exhibit high ORR catalytic activity in alkaline medium.^[15] In particular, cobalt-based oxides have recently attracted growing interests due to their potentially high activity and relatively easy preparation. For example, Dai et al. fabricated the Co₃O₄/N-doped graphene hybrid structure and observed an enhanced catalytic activity for ORR.^[17] Recently, the partial substitution of cobalt with low cost and environmentally benign elements such as Ni, Cu and Mn has been shown potentially advantageous, while the progress is still quite slow. Moreover, the substituted metal oxides can only deliver much lower mass activity compared with Pt-based materials in most of previous studies. Undoubtedly, it will be of great significance to develop substituted metal oxide electrocatalysts having comparable catalytic performance with Pt-based materials.
In this work, we develop a cost-effective and environmentally benign solution phase method to synthesize hybrid nanosheets by growing well crystalline NiCo₂O₄ nanoparticles on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets through based on a polyol process together with a subsequent thermal annealing treatment. Remarkably, the NiCo₂O₄-rGO hybrid nanosheets exhibit very high catalytic activity for ORR in terms of high current density and low over-potential. More importantly, the NiCo₂O₄-rGO hybrid nanosheets possess very high methanol-tolerance, which is very important for practical applications. The high quality NiCo₂O₄-rGO hybrid nanosheets could find promising use as a noble-metal-free and methanol-tolerant electrocatalyst for fuel cells.

Electrocatalytic water splitting using energy from sunlight represents a promising strategy for clean, low-cost, and environmentally friendly production of H₂. Unfortunately, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) at the anode is kinetically slow and represents the bottleneck of this process. Transition metal oxides are good candidates for the anode in electrochemical water splitting. Inspired by recent computational work on b-NiOOH, which is the active phase during the charging and discharging process in alkaline batteries, we performed density functional theory calculations with the inclusion of the Hubbard-U correction on selected surfaces of pure and Co-doped b-NiOOH to calculate the energetics of the OER. We explored different reaction mechanisms of the OER for different Co doping levels of the b-NiOOH surface and different surface unit cell sizes. Our results indicate that the most likely reaction mechanism depends on the amount of Co doping. We find that doping the b-NiOOH surface with only 25% Co decreases the overpotential from 0.28 to 0.18 V. We also find that the theoretical overpotential, and which step is the potential limiting step, depends on the size of the surface unit cell selected in the calculations. This work highlights how optimizing the binding energies of the various intermediates (O, OH and H₂O) on the Ni and Co surface sites, may be key to reducing the overpotential.

The oxygen evolution reaction (OER), known for its slow kinetics, is a limiting reaction in several clean energy technologies including rechargeable metal-air batteries, electrolysis cells and solar fuel production.¹ For this reason, considerable effort has been devoted to identify efficient, stable catalysts with earth-abundant first-row transition metals, especially Ni, Co, Fe and Mn.^{2, 3} Fe is particularly well-known for its incorporation as a dopant/impurity into nickel-based OER catalysts while the OER activity of Fe itself is not well understood. ^{4, 5}
Our previous studies show that trace Fe impurities in KOH electrolyte dramatically increase the activity of Ni- and Co- (oxy)hydroxides as well as bare Au substrates. This indicates the importance of Fe, but the real active site in mixed Ni-Fe and Co-Fe (oxy)hydroxide catalysts remains unclear.^{4, 5} To help identify the active site and understand the role of Fe, we examine the intrinsic activity and stability of iron (oxy)hydroxide. By using a quartz crystal microbalance to measure the electrode mass in situ during catalysis, we find that the OER activity of iron (oxy)hydroxide is strongly dependent on film thickness with thinner films exhibiting substantially higher per metal activities than thick films, in some cases approaching those of the Ni-Fe (oxy)hydroxides. This is likely due to the poor conductivity of iron (oxy)hydroxide, with the increase of film thickness, the total resistance increases, resulting in potential drop in transferring electrons to each catalyst site. This hypothesis is confirmed by using an interdigitated array electrode to measure the conductivity in situ. We find the conductivity for FeOOH to be strongly potential dependent and negligible (< 10^-7 S cm^-1) until ~ 400 mV overpotential. We also report the activity of FeOOH on different substrates in order to understand how the substrate affects activity⁶ in ultra thin films that are not substantially affected by conductivity limitations.
1. N. S. Lewis and D. G. Nocera, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 2006, 103, 15729-15735.
2. L. Trotochaud, J. K. Ranney, K. N. Williams and S. W. Boettcher, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 17253-17261.
3. R. Subbaraman, D. Tripkovic, K.-C. Chang, D. Strmcnik, A. P. Paulikas, P. Hirunsit, M. Chan, J. Greeley, V. Stamenkovic and N. M. Markovic, Nat Mater, 2012, 11, 550-557.
4. L. Trotochaud, S. L. Young, J. K. Ranney and S. W. Boettcher, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2014, 136, 6744-6753.
5. M. S. Burke, M. Kast, L. Trotochaud and S. W. Boettcher, manuscript near submission to JACS.
6. B. S. Yeo and A. T. Bell, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 5587-5593.

In contrast to conventional PEMFC type of gas-fed fuel cells the researchers from Daihatsu Motor Co. have introduced the idea of anion-exchange membrane fuel cell with liquid fuels.^[1-3] Switching from acidic proton exchange to alkaline, anion-exchange membranes has many benefits including: fast kinetic towards fuel oxidation and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and possible use of less costly non-platinum group metal (non-PRM) catalysts as anode and cathode material for both sides of the membrane electrode assembly (MEA). The liquid fuel of choice was hydrazine hydrate, which has no carbon atoms and thus will not contribute to increased CO₂ levels. The theoretical electromotive force of such direct hydrazine fuel cell is 1.56V and hydrazine hydrate as a fuel can be oxidized by number of cheap catalysts.^[4] The use of alkaline media allows switching to completely non-PGM materials set not only from anode side (oxidation of hydrazine hydrate), but also from cathode (oxygen reduction reaction). The high activity of cathode catalysts was confirmed in both RDE and MEA tests (Figure 1). As synthesized materials were extensively studied by XPS, SEM, TEM, BET and other methods in order to elucidate the structure-to-properties correlations. This paper describes a new class of templated, self-supported Non-PGM catalysts deroved by sacrificial support method (SSM) and their activity in free alkaline electrolyte (KOH) and in anion-exchange MEA. It will address the issues of alkaline ionomer integration with membrane and he catalyst material, the sensitivity of these ORR catalysts to fuel (hydrazine) crossover, and their successful integration with Non-PGM Ni-Zn based anode catalyst in a functional automotive fuel cell stack to power an electric service vehicle demonstrated by Daihatsu Corp.^[5]
1. Sakamoto, T., Deevanhxay, P., Asazawa, K., Tsushima, S., Hirai, S., Tanaka, H. J. Power Sources, 2014, 252, 35-42.
2. Sakamoto, T., Asazawa, K., Sanabria-Chinchilla, J., Martinez, U., Halevi, B., Atanassov, P., Strasser, P., Tanaka, H. J. Power Sources, 2014, 247, 605-611.
3. Sakamoto, T., Asazawa, K., Martinez, U., Halevi, Suziki, T., Arai, S., Matsumura, D., Nishihata, Y., B., Atanassov, P., Tanaka, H. J. of Power Sources, 2013, 234, 252-259.605-611.
4. Serov, A., Kwak, C., Appl. Cat. B: Environmental, 2010, 98, 1-9.
5. Serov, A., Padilla, M., Roy, A.J., Atanassov, P., Sakamoto, T., Asazawa, K., and Tanaka, H., AngewandteChemie Intern. Ed., 2014, 53, 10336 -10339

Platinum is the main materials component of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. The amount of Pt required to achieve stringent performance targets of these cells is still too high. High Pt loadings are needed in particular on the cathode side, where the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) incurs a major portion of irreversible voltage losses. Recent theoretical and experimental studies show consistently that effectiveness factors of Pt utilization in the present generation of fuel cell catalyst layers are extremely low, in the range of 3%. Efforts in catalyst and electrode design, which aim to reduce the Pt loading, clash with stability requirements; a drastically reduced Pt loading is often accompanied by markedly enhanced degradation rates. The presentation will provide a systematic account of factors that determine ORR activity and stability of Pt in fuel cell catalyst layers. Insights deduced from catalyst layer modeling will be used to rationalize different reaction conditions in the two main catalyst layer designs, viz. typical gas diffusion electrodes and flooded nanoporous electrodes. These reaction conditions have a critical impact on oxide formation at Pt, surface charging state, ORR kinetics and Pt dissolution rate. The fundamental function in this context is the dependence of the total charge at the metal surface, as “seen” by ions in solution, on metal phase potential. Recent efforts in theory and modeling that aim at systematically uncovering this relation will be presented.

Growing global interest in electric vehicles (EV) in recent years has driven the need for smaller and lighter rechargeable batteries. A rechargeable Zn-air battery is considered as one of the potential candidates for next generation secondary batteries due to its high theoretical energy density. However, at the current state of technology, its further application and commercialization have been limited due to insufficient kinetics for the air electrode reactions, which are oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution (ORR/OER) upon discharging and charging, respectively. Platinum-based materials are known to be the most active bifunctional catalysts in both acidic and alkaline conditions. However, large scale commercial application of Pt has been precluded by its high cost and scarcity. Therefore, increasing efforts have been devoted to developing an efficient, durable and non-precious metal-based bifunctional catalyst to replace Pt-based materials. In this regard, various materials such as transition metal oxides may be applicable as alternative, low cost bifunctional catalysts.
Recently, Mn and Co mixed oxides and spinels have been widely investigated as promising bifunctional catalysts in alkaline media due to their low cost, high abundance, low toxicity, multiple valence states and high catalytic activity. In this study, we report on the synthesis of nanocrystalline Mn-Co oxide/PEDOT catalysts using facile and rapid sequential anodic electrodeposition on glassy carbon electrodes. Free standing Mn-Co oxide rods (10 µm long) are first synthesized and then coated by electro-polymerization of a conducting polymer (PDEOT). The Mn-Co oxide/PEDOT electrodes consist of MnO₂, with partial substitution of Co²⁺ and Co³⁺ ions for Mn⁴⁺ ions. The amorphous PEDOT coating is added to compensate for the poor conductivity of Mn-Co oxide. Structural characterization of as-deposited and cycled electrodes is conducted using XPS, SEM and TEM. The electrocatalytic properties of Mn-Co oxide/PEDOT is studied using rotating disk electrode (RDE) techniques in 1 M KOH electrolytes and Koutecky-Levich modeling. Mn-Co oxide/PEDOT electrode has comparable bifunctional activity towards ORR/OER relative to Pt/C, as a result of abundant defects and high surface area.

Non-aqueous lithium oxygen (Li-O₂) batteries are very attractive energy stores due to their exceptionally high theoretical energy densities. However, one of the major drawbacks of Li-O₂ batteries are the high charging overvoltages (up to 1.5 V) arising from the low electric conductivity of the insoluble discharge product lithium peroxide (Li₂O₂). Redox mediators have been recently proposed as soluble catalysts enabling a significant reduction of the charging overpotentials [1,2]. Here, we show that TEMPO (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidinyloxyl), homogeneously dissolved in the electrolyte, can act as a mobile redox mediator (RM) during the charging process which enables the oxidation of Li₂O₂ particles even without a direct electric contact to the positive electrode [3]. The incorporation of only 10 mM TEMPO provides a distinct reduction of the charging potentials by 500 mV. In addition TEMPO enables a significant enhancement of the cycling stability leading to a doubling of the cycle numbers compared to a regular Li-O₂ cell.
We present systematic results on the electrochemical performance and the catalytic mechanism of dissolved TEMPO in Li-O₂ cells. This includes a detailed investigation on the relevant chemical and physical properties of TEMPO such as the electrochemical stability of TEMPO (using cyclic voltammetry), the diffusion coefficient of TEMPO in diglyme (by chronoamperometry) and the TEMPO dependent oxygen solubility in diglyme (based on a monitoring of the oxygen pressure). Moreover we studied the discharge reactions in a Li-O₂ battery with TEMPO by means of XRD, Raman spectroscopy, ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and SEM. The catalytic influence of TEMPO on the charging reaction was systematically investigated by varying current density and cathode material. Since the charging plateau merely corresponds to the electrochemical oxidation of the mediator at the cathode surface, a parallel monitoring of the cell pressure and differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) were applied to proof the subsequent oxidation of Li₂O₂ to O₂. Herein, the predominant formation of O₂ was confirmed for the charging plateau in the presence of TEMPO. In addition, we present a systematic study on the charging mechanism of Li-O₂ cells with redox mediators combining electrochemical methods with a parallel pressure monitoring. As an important result, we show that the redox mediator can form a parasitic shuttle mechanism between both electrodes, which is of crucial importance for the performance of homogeneously catalyzed Li-O₂ cell. In conclusion, we demonstrate that TEMPO is a stable and effective redox mediator for Li-O₂ cells.
[1] Chen et al., Nat. Chem. 2013, 5, 489
[2] Lim et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed.2014, 53, 4007
[3] Bergner et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2014, 136, 15054

The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) are key chemical transformations ubiquitous in a number of renewable energy technologies including fuel cells, unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFCs), and water electrolyzers. Critical to these technologies is the development of catalysts that can effectively drive these reactions in a stable manner while minimizing or eliminating precious metals. This paper will focus on several aspects of materials and device development for these technologies. First, manganese oxide based materials will be discussed as bi-functional, non-precious metal catalysts for the ORR and the OER in alkaline media. We will then describe their integration into fuel cell and URFC devices that employ alkaline anion exchange membranes (AEMs). These are technologies that could potentially couple to renewable, intermittent electricity such as wind and solar to provide grid-scale storage. Finally, we will discuss our catalyst development efforts for the ORR in an acidic environment, namely our approach to tailor Pt-based core-shell nanoparticles with greater mass activity and stability than commercial standard Pt/C nanomaterials.

Improving oxygen electrochemistry is a ‘holy grail&’ problem with major impacts across many technologies. Here we present discovery of a catalyst system offering reversible oxygen electrochemistry. The catalyst delivers chemically and electrochemically reversible two-electron ORR and OER. We will present electrochemical and other experimental evidence supporting this claim.

The High Throughput Experimentation (HTE) project of the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis performs accelerated discovery of new earth-abundant photoabsorbers and electrocatalysts. We will describe several new screening instruments for high throughput (photo-)electrochemical measurements and summarize the discovery pipelines. This approach will be illustrated using the high throughput discovery, follow-on verification, and device implementation of a new quaternary metal oxide catalyst. Discovering improved electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is of great importance for efficient solar fuels generation, regenerative fuel cells, and recharging metal air batteries. We report a new Ce-rich family of active catalysts composed of earth abundant elements, which was discovered using high-throughput methods to produce 5456 discrete compositions in the (Ni-Fe-Co-Ce)Ox composition space. The activity and stability of this new OER catalyst was verified by re-synthesis and extensive electrochemical testing of samples in a standard format in 1.0 M NaOH. Characterization of selected compositions by XRD, XPS, SEM, TEM, EDS, XRF mapping, and EXAFS both as-synthesized and after electrochemical testing, reveal the importance of nanostructure to the observed electrochemical performance. The discovery of additional electrocatalysts by expansion of the composition space investigated and of new composition spaces tested for OER activity and stability under acidic conditions will be reported.

Non-noble metal electrocatalysts (NNMEs) with a high performance are urgently needed to rival Pt-based electrocatalysts for fuel cells and metal-air batteries. Exploration of unique synthetic approaches is the key to the creation of highly efficient NNMEs yet remains rare. Herein, we report an unprecedented synthetic route that combines ionic self-assembly (ISA) of iron (III) porphyrin (FeP) with traditional pyrolysis, leading to flower-like electrocatalysts. Remarkably, the original morphology of nanoflowers of self-assembled FeP was nearly retained after carbonization, enabling highly desired manipulation over the size, shape and surface area closely related to the performance of NNMEs. The obtained flower-like electrocatalysts exhibited a high oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity, excellent durability and methanol tolerance in both alkaline and acidic solution. This approach opens up a new avenue to produce high performance NNMEs with controllable structural features that are difficult or impossible to be achieved prior to this study.

We present an overview of our recent work on catalyst materials for the electrochemical oxygen reduction (ORR) and oxygen evolution (OER) reaction.
We address insights in the materials science and catalysis of Pt bimetallic ORR electrocatalysts using aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and spectroscopic (EELS) studies.We demonstrate how atomic core-shell fine structure,nanoporosity and nanoparticle shape can influence the activity and, more importantly, the stability of Pt-Ni bimetallic nanoparticles for ORR cathode electrocatalysts.
We also discuss recent research on experimental correlations between the geometric and electronic structure of IrO₂ single crystals, thin films and spherical nanoparticles and their OER activity and stability. Starting with pure IrO₂ we move to structure-activity effects of bimetallic IrNiO_x films and IrNiOx core-shell nanoparticles.

A novel Fe-N-C composite material with a hollow graphitized nanostructure is prepared by pyrolyzing iron-chelating, nitrogen-containing precursors adsorbed on carbon black spheres for use in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The resulting composite hybrid exhibits excellent electrocatalytic activity and a four-electron dominated ORR pathway in an alkaline solution. The efficient catalytic activity of the prepared Fe-N-C is mainly attributed to the effective incorporation of nitrogen and iron atoms into the graphitized matrices and high electrical conductivity due to the interconnected structure. Furthermore, the hybrid material shows superior catalytic durability in the alkaline medium even after 3,000 cyclic voltammetry cycles, making it a good candidate for a cathodic electrocatalyst in PEMFCs.

We present our work on the fabrication of nickel(II) oxide nanoparticles which meet the substantial challenge of an inexpensive, efficient and stable electrocatalyst for water splitting.
We will present a novel synthesis route for the preparation of ultrasmall crystalline highly dispersible nickel(iII) oxide nanoparticles by a solvothermal reaction in tert-butanol. The crystalline nanoparticles are formed already in solution by a chemical reaction with the solvent, without the need for a further high temperature treatment unavoidably leading to irreversible particle agglomeration. The particles prepared in this way are dispersible in ethanol with the addition of very small amounts of acetic acid forming stable colloidal dispersions. Using this approach we have obtained crystalline dispersible nanoparticles of nickel oxide with a narrow particle size distribution. The particle size can be varied from ultra-small 2.5 nm to 6 nm by increasing the reaction duration and can be further tuned by a post-synthesis temperature treatment.
The obtained nickel oxide nanoparticles demonstrate an extremely efficient catalytic behavior of the material in electrochemical water splitting. The nanoparticles show very high turn-over frequencies of 0.49 s^#8209;1 at an overpotential of eta; = 300 mV, even outperforming expensive rare earth iridium oxide catalysts.

Faced-controlled metal alloy nanocrystals has attracted increasing attention due to their use as highly active heterogeneous catalysts in oxygen-involved electrocatalytic reactions in the applications such as fuel cells, batteries, and other alternative energy conversions.¹ Recent studies based on both the theoretic simulation and experiment data on surface of bimetallic catalysts toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) show that desorption of OH, which is the determining step in the electro-reduction of oxygen, highly depends on d band structure.^2-3 It is apparent that surface geometry and surface compositions can modulate the d band structure. Recently, we developed a Gas Reducing Agent in Liquid Solution (GRAILS) method for making uniform cubic, octahedral and icosahedral Pt alloy nanocrystals in non-aqueous solutions using carbon monoxide (CO) gas.^4-6
In this presentation, we show that this GRAILS method can be a powerful approach as a platform for making a variety of Pt alloy nanostructures with desired surface compositions, which are designed for highly active and durable ORR catalysts. By using CO gas and organic ligands, we show high-level controls over the growth and facet formation of Pt-based nanocrystals to obtain highly uniform nanocrystals with desired facets. High catalytic activity in ORR was observed in (111) dominated icosahedral and octahedral Pt alloy catalysts. The correlation between the catalytic performance and crystal geometry and surface strain will be discussed based on experiment and simulation data.^6-7 The controlling factors on the growth and stabilizing the formation of Pt icosahedron nanoparticles in solution will also be discussed,⁶ which is in general a type of unstable structure in thermodynamics.
1. J. B. Wu, H. Yang, Acc. Chem. Res., 2013, 46, 1848-1857.
2. V. R. Stamenkovic, B. Fowler, B. S. Mun, G. F. Wang, P. N. Ross, C. A. Lucas, N. M. Markovic, Science2007, 315, 493-497.
3. V. R. Stamenkovic, B. S. Mun, K. J.thinsp;J. Mayrhofer, P. N. Ross, N. M. Markovic, J. Rossmeisl, J. Greeley, J. K. Noslash;rskov, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2006, 45, 2897-2901.
4. J. B. Wu, A. Gross, H. Yang, Nano Lett., 2011, 11, 798-802.
5. J. B. Wu, L. Qi, H. J. You, A. Gross, J. Li, H. Yang, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2012, 134, 11880-11883.
6. W. Zhou, J. B. Wu, H. Yang, Nano Lett., 2013, 13, 2870-2874.
7. J. B. Wu, P. P. Li, Y.-T. Pan, S. Warren, X. Yin, H. Yang, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2012, 41, 8066-9074.

Fundamental understanding of the processes involved in electrochemical reduction of oxygen and its evolution from water based electrolytes is considered critical for further advancement of materials that could be implemented in technologies such as electrolyzers, batteries and fuel cells. Atomic scale insight at the electrified solid-liquid interfaces provides invaluable guidance to overcome limitations that cause a lower than desired operating efficiency of the devices. All of that highlights the need for development of more active and durable oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts. While the majority of research is placed on the catalyst design and synthesis aiming to improve their efficiency, far less has been done to resolve and understand the impact of the liquid phase of the interface at which reactions are taking place. For that reason, in addition to surface structure, surface and subsurface composition and electronic structure, the role of liquid phase which influences the overall properties of an electrified interface will be emphasized. Molecular species from the electrolyte and the nature of their interaction with the catalyst surface will be demonstrated in tuning the overall catalytic performance. The knowledge acquired from well-defined systems has been further employed to create tailor-made real-world catalysts with advanced properties. It will also be demonstrated how highly diverse multimetallic systems induce additional benefits in enhancing both catalytic activity and durability of solid-liquid interfaces.

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell shows tremendous promise and represents a versatile and efficient energy conversion device. However, before the PEM fuel cell can achieve widespread commercial use, improvements in unit cost, fuel cell durability and fuel versatility must be achieved. Key to the PEM fuel cell operation is the catalysis of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on the cathode. A perfect ORR catalyst would very efficiently convert O₂, protons, and electrons to water, have no peroxide byproducts, be inexpensive, and durable. This, however, represents a significant challenge; the sluggish kinetics of the ORR on precious metals have been the subject of extensive studies in electrocatalysis over the last 8 decades and to date no non-platinum or even non-platinum group metal (PGM) based catalyst has been discovered that is more efficient than a PGM based catalyst. And while Pt and Pt alloys offer acceptable ORR performance, the high cost of Pt severely impacts the future commercial viability of current PEM fuel cell technology. Additionally state of the art fuel cell cathodes are inherently thermodynamically unstable in that the preferred catalyst configuration is well dispersed Pt-nanoparticles on a thermally treated carbon support.
A promising alternative approach to Pt alloys or non-precious metal catalysts is the use of metal oxides as co-catalysts and/or sup- ports to Pt catalysts. One class of metal oxides that have received much interest for this application are the heteropoly acids (HPAs), an acid stable subset of the larger group of tungsten or molybdenum based metal oxide clusters termed polyoxometalates. HPAs have been re- peatedly shown to enhance the ORR activity of Pt or Pt alloys, most significantly for HPAs containing tungsten, and even pro- vide limited catalytic activity on their own. Improvements in CO tolerance have also been observed as a result of the addition of various HPAs, presumably by the participation of HPA in the bifunctional mechanism, and provide one mechanism for the activity enhancement. Another mechanism includes the ability of some HPAs to stabilize transition-metal nanoclusters, preventing particle growth/aggregation both during synthesis and potential cycling. Further, modification with HPA has been shown to increase the availability and/or mobility of protons at Pt sites, providing activity advantages at least in membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs).
In this paper we use a dispersed functionalized HPA, 11- silicotungstate (SiW11), covalently attached to the carbon via carbon- carbon bonds prior to the addition of colloidal Pt, so that the HPA would be stable to water dissolution and would not impede mass transport. We quantify the ideal loading of SiW11 on the carbon in terms of maximizing gains in ORR activity catalyzed by the Pt and evaluate the impact of SiW11 on the durability of the Pt catalyst.

Oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) over binary metal alloys has attracted renewed attention due to its technological importance in pollution control and fuel cells. However, the lack of good understanding of how the phase state, chemical composition and atomic-scale structure of the alloys at the nanoscale influence their ORR activity impedes the development of nanoalloy catalysts by rational design. We will show how in situ high-energy synchrotron x-ray diffraction and atomic pair distribution function (PDF) analysis coupled to nanoalloy 3D structure simulations and catalytic activity studies can help in this respect. The great potential of this approach will be demonstrated with results from recent studies on Pd-Ni, Pt-Ru and Pt-Pd nanoalloys post-synthesis treated at elevated temperatures in reactive gas atmosphere as to be optimized for ORR.

Oxygen electrocatalysis is critical to numerous renewable energy technologies, such as fuel cells, metal-air batteries and electrolyzers. The oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and oxygen evolution reaction (OER) exhibit intrinsically slow kinetics and high charge transfer resistances. While effective catalysts have been developed and are commercially available, most are based on precious metals and are not economically viable for widespread application. In addition, commercial catalysts are typically effective at performing either the ORR (e.g. Pt and Pt/C catalysts) or the OER (e.g. Ir and Ir/C catalysts), but not both. Furthermore, these catalysts can still suffer from reaction poisoning, poor electrocatalytic selectivity and stability, further decreasing their utility. An ideal catalyst would be easily prepared, stable, cost effective, and exhibit bi-functional behavior, in that it can efficiently perform both the ORR and the OER. Such catalysts could simplify design protocols for re-chargeable metal-air batteries and fuel cells and lead to the realization of efficient and practical devices.
We have prepared nickel-cobalt oxide (Ni_xCo_3-xO₄) spinel nanostructured films through a simple electro-deposition and annealing process. The Ni_xCo_3-xO₄ catalysts exhibit exemplary performance for both the ORR and OER. Along with an improvement over the parent cobalt oxide (Co₃O₄) catalyst, the Ni_xCo_3-xO₄ films outperform commercial catalysts for both the ORR (e.g. vs. 20% Pt/C), and the OER (e.g. vs. 20% Ir/C). This presentation will demonstrate the synthesis and evaluation of these Ni_xCo_3-xO₄ catalyst films and examine the effect of Ni-doping on composition, metal ion valence, surface area and electrocatalysis. We will also illustrate that these catalysts offer stability and electrocatalytic selectivities greater than or equal to commercial benchmark catalysts. Given that cobalt and nickel are currently about 1,539 and 2,694 times cheaper than platinum, respectively, these catalysts offer promise for widespread next-generation renewal energy technologies.
Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy&’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.

The scalable storage of renewable energy by means of converting water to hydrogen fuels electrochemically hinges on fundamental improvements in catalytic materials. However, many applications exist where an extended lifetime is virtually crucial for their functionality and success, e.g. in case of limited accessibility such as tire pressure sensors or biomedical implants. For these kinds of applications, the ultimate power supply should be a self-renewing energy source. This strategy is pursued by the concept of Micro Energy Harvesting (MEH). Within a MEH system a micro generator converts ambient energy to electrical energy for driving an application. Unfortunately, it is not ensured that the ambient energy level will maintain always high enough to provide sufficient power to the system as harvested energy usually manifests itself in rather irregular, random and low-energy bursts. One appealing form of integrated energy storage is the use of H₂/air, a so called fuel cell type (FC) battery. Such devices promise very high volumetric energy densities of more than 2000 Wh/l. Consequently, this type of battery has recently attracted more and more attention and primary as well as secondary cells have been realized. Alkaline polymer electrolyte fuel cells have been recognized as the most promising solution in order to overcome the dependency on noble metal catalysts. Nevertheless, further improvements for these kinds of fuel cells have to be reached with respect to high power. Therefore, one promising approach is to increase the skin surface of porous chromium decorated nickel electrodes for enhancement of exchange current density by forming three-dimensional (3D) microstructures directly into the electrode. Therefore, a novel laser structuring process was applied using ultrashort laser pulses. Ultrashort laser processing of complex multimaterial systems for energy storage allow for precise material removal without changing the material properties. By applying this novel laser-based structuring technique, 3D microstructures could be formed permitting shortened diffusion lengths between the electrolyte and the electrode surface being necessary for increased exchange current densities

The development of synthetic methods for the fabrications of new bimetallic platinum-based nanocrystals (PtM) with high catalytic activity is one of the essential subjects in fuel cell research. Our study demonstated that three different types of alloyed FePt nanstructures, nanodendrites, nanospheres and nanocubes, were prepared and their catalytic activities for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) were studied. The ORR catalytic activity of the nanostructures were increased in the order of E-TEK Pt/C < FePt nanospheres < FePt nanocubes < FePt nanodendrites. The FePt nanostructures were analyzed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), high angle annular dark field (HAADF), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and electron energy loss spectrum (EELS) mapping. The HRTEM images revealed that the large surface area of FePt nanodendrites with a high density of atomic steps was enclosed by high-index {311} facet. The density functional theory simulation was performed to understand the origins of the enhanced electrochemical activity of FePt nanodendrites. The enhancement could be attributed to the exposure of high-index {311} facet of the nanodendrite with high surface energy in comparison to that low-index {111} and {200} facets of FePt nanospheres and nanocubes, respectively. Our experimental and theoretical studies have opened a route toward the syntheses of new nonprecious alloyed nanostructures to replace Pt as active fuel cell catalysts.

The synthesis of high energy-faceted alloy nanoparticles has been zealously pursued for the development of high performing nanocatalysts. While the facet-control of alloy nanoparticles, namely the organization of surface atoms, is attained by understanding the growth kinetics and surface-stabilizing effects of surfactants, little is known for the atomistic organization within the matrix of a nanoparticle. Herein we report that the atomistic organization within the alloy nanoparticle matrix is greatly affected by the surface energies which are governed by the geometrical parameters of the nanoparticle and the identities of surface bound moieties. With this understanding, we could prepare phase-segregated binary nanoparticles that exhibit excellent electrocatalytic activities relevant to the fuel cell applications.

Facet-controlled nanoparticles are expected to exhibit varying reactivity dependent on the type of facets and nanostructural features. On the other hand, the composition of alloy nanoparticle could be dynamically varied by understanding the nature of metal-surface binding moiety interaction. The successful formation of alloy nanoparticles requires the kinetic and thermodynamical control. Therefore, a new alloy phase, obtained from regioselective impurity doping of facet-controlled nanoparticles, might exhibit a surface-stabilization behavior which is completely different from that of the original nanoparticle, leading to different facets and completely new nanocrystal shapes. Herein we report an unusual post-synthetic doping-induced novel nanostructure transformation process, leading the unique nanostructures.

There are a lot efforts to synthesize new Pt-based nanoparticles for the improvement of electro-catalytic activity in oxygen reduction reaction and methanol oxidation reaction. Because core-shell structure has already proved its excellent activity due to the lattice mismatch between the core and the shell, we have strived to find a synthetic route for a highly efficient electro-catalytic 1-D nanostructure with a core-shell structure. Herein we report the facile one pot synthesis of coaxial nanocables with Pt shell, which exhibits catalytic performance enhancing numerous twinning boundaries. The combination of the core-shell effect and high activity of twinning boundary resulted in a great surface energy elevation, which in turn led to a great improvement in electro-catalytic activity.

Synthesis of facet-controlled nanoparticle is receiving a great attention as promising materials for catalyst, optoelectronics, and nanobio applications. However, synthesis of facet-controlled Ru and Ir nanoparticles has not been reported thus far, probably due to the difficulty in atomic packing; the Ru and Ir precursors are thermodynamically very stable and thermal decomposition of them usually lead to the formation of only very small spherical nanoparticles. In order to prepare facet-controlled Ru and Ir nanocrystal, it is necessary to speed up the decomposition kinetics for the precursors. The different decomposition kinetics of Cu and M (M=Ru, Ir) precursors leads to the formation of core-shell type nanoparticles. However, the disparate dissolution of Cu phase leads to different nanocrystal morphologies, namely, facet-controlled hollow octahedral Ru nanocage and CuIr@Ir core-shell octahedral nanoparticle.

Dendritic Pt catalysts are one of superb candidates in the proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) due to high surface-area-to-volume ratio, plenty of adsorption site, and surface permeability. However, monometallic Pt catalyst suffers from poisoning associated with intermediates adsorbates, which limits methanol oxidation reaction (MOR) or oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) kinetics and long-term stability. To improve electocatalytic properties of Pt, morphology control of the Pt particles and using Pt-based bimetallic alloy nanoparticles instead of pure Pt as the electrocatalyst have been extensively studied for the past decade. In this regard, we developed a facile aqueous synthesis method for preparation of Au@Pt core-shell and Pd@Pt core-shell nanostructures based on Pt dendritic shell. As a results, prepared bimetallic core-shell nanostructures have exhibited higher electrocatalytic activity, stability, and durability than those of the monometallic Pt dendritic catalysts toward ORR and MOR because bimetallic core-shell nanostructures can be finely tuned by manipulating their core and shell structures. In this reason, core effect was investigated via synthesized Au@Pt core-shell nanostructures consisting of a dendritic Pt shell and structured Au cores (nanocubes, nanorods, and nanooctahedra) toward ORR. And also, we found that the electrocatalytic activity and stability of the prepared Pd@Pt core-shell nanostructures for the MOR were highly dependent on their Pt shell thicknesses.

We demonstrate a highly efficient synthesis of palladium-tungsten bimetallic nanoparticles supported on ordered mesoporous carbon (Pd-W/OMCs) and their use as high performance electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) in fuel cells. The synthesis is performed in an ordinary kitchen microwave oven in less than one minute by a direct mixing of precursor materials. Even at a very low percentage of noble metal (Pd:W=1:8), the hybrid catalyst material exhibit a current density equal to commercial 60% Pt/Vulcan. This is explained by a partial segregation and the formation of catalytic hot spots at small Pd-islands embedded in the Pd-W bimetallic nanoparticles. The formation of the Pd-islands is supported by high resolution STEM and high resolution energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) mapping, and unambiguously confirmed by extended x-ray fine structure absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS) which based on a coordination number analysis demonstrate that the embedded Pd-islands contain 10 atoms on average. By electron energy loss spectroscopy, x-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and EXAFS we find that the Pd-islands embedded in the W-matrix are metallic, and despite their small size they are remarkable stable, explained by the reducing environment of the W-matrix. The long term stability of the Pd-islands is manifested by EELS and EXAFS measurement showing that the Pd-islands exhibit metallic character even in samples stored for more than one year at ambient conditions. In addition the oxygen reduction activity measured by cyclic voltammetry shows negligible decrease after 53 hours of continuous testing. Density functional theory calculations show that the Pd-islands form due to higher energetic stability compared to a fully homogeneous alloy particle. Concurrently, a complete segregation is hindered by quenching the samples during synthesis. Theoretical analysis of ORR and activity Volcano plots show that the catalytic efficiency of the atomic Pd-islands in the W-matrix depends strongly on both the number of Pd-atoms as well as their structural configuration in the nanoparticle, and that for some configurations the ORR proceeds as efficiently as on Pt(111) surface. Our results give important insight into the formations, stabilization and performance of bimetallic nanoparticles for catalytic reactions. Furthermore, our study show that the complete formation of core-shell nanoparticles is not crucial for high performance cost efficient electrocatalysts. As a matter of fact; the island structure exhibit several advantages over core-shell structures, and hence opens the field to other designs of bimetallic nanoparticles.

Polymer exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology is one of the promising fields of clean and sustainable power, which is based on direct conversation of fuel into electricity. However, at the present moment PEM fuel cell is unable to be successful commercialization. The main factor is the high cost of materials in catalyst layer which is a core part of PEM fuel cell. In order to reduce the overall system cost, developing active, inexpensive non-precious metal (non-PGM) electrode catalysts to replace currently used Platinum (Pt)-based catalysts is a necessary and essential requirement. The purpose of my research is using Graphene oxide, melamine, ferrous salt and metal organic frameworks (MOF) to synthesize a new Non-PGM catalyst. This catalyst will be a transition metal nitrogen-containing complex supported on carbon material (M-N/C). The main synthetic methods are high temperature heat treating (800-1000 #8451;) and ball milling. RRDE test will be used to measure electron transfer number and ORR reactivity, which are the most important electrochemical properties of the new catalyst. So far the experimental setup is almost finished and some precursor samples are prepared by different treatment methods. And a better treatment method is designed from the analysis of precursor samples. The next step will be doping Fe and MOF to synthesize M-N/C catalyst.

A series of CoSe₂/C nanoparticles were prepared by a simple microwave method using different molar ratios of Se/Co=2.0~4.0. The surface morphology, crystal structure, chemical composition and electrocatalytic activity toward oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) of CoSe₂/C catalyst nanoparticles were systematically investigated. The major phases of CoSe₂/C nanoparticles were identified to be orthorhombic CoSe₂ with minor cubic CoSe₂. The potentials corresponding to ORR (E_ORR) reached 0.6~0.7 V, while the electron transfer numbers (n) were 3.1~4.0 in oxygen saturated sulfuric acid solutions. The presence of excessive Se on the catalyst surface was confirmed at Se/Cosup3;2.5, which significantly influenced the ORR activities. Slightly excess amount of Se oxide presented in CoSe₂/C would prevent CoSe₂ nanoparticles from growing and smaller sizes with less agglomerated Se-rich CoSe₂/C were obtained, resulting in good ORR activity. However, too much Se oxide would cause severe aggregation of CoSe₂ nanoparticles, leading to poor ORR activity. The best ORR activities with E_ORR=0.705 V and n=4.0 could be achieved with Se/Co=3.0.

CeO₂ is an attractive material for various applications due to its physical, chemical and electrical properties. For example, CeO₂ is a basic component in oxidative catalysis as well as sensors and fuel cell technology, where catalytically active surfaces and high ionic conductivity, well-known for CeO₂, are essential. These applications are based on the easily formed oxygen vacancies in the fluorite structure of ceria due to the variable oxidation state of Ce ions (3+ and 4+). Doping ceria with aliovalent cations to some extent may increase the oxygen vacancies while maintaining the cubic fluorite structure. These ceria-based materials are found to have high ionic conductivities and enhance catalytically active surface. In the present study, the effect of Nd³⁺ on the surface energy and water adsorption enthalpy of CeO₂ was investigated. Neodymium doped nano CeO₂ powders, with 0 to 10 wt% Nd were synthesized by non-aqueous sol-gel method with oleylamine as a surfactant and diphenyl-ether as an aging agent, in vacuum. The water adsorption enthalpy was measured using a custom combination of gas dosing system and micro-calorimeter. The interfacial energies were assessed using differential scanning calorimetry. The effect of Nd on the energetics will be discussed.

Inexpensive, abundant, efficient and stable materials for oxygen evolution reaction catalysis are needed to enhance the production of H₂ via electricity- or solar- driven water electrolysis. First row transition metals are an ideal candidate for oxygen evolution reaction (OER) catalysts in alkaline media. To develop these materials and create highly efficient catalysts that work in anion exchange membrane (AEM) electrolysis systems we aim to 1) understand the intrinsic activity and stability of each catalyst and 2) understand how that knowledge relates to AEM cell performance and durability.
We demonstrated that a simple Fe impurity dramatically increases the activity of Ni- and Co-(oxy)hydroxide materials.^1,2 Prior to this analysis the commonly cited activity trend of 1^st row (oxy)hydroxides was Ni > Co > Fe.^3,4 Our new results indicate that by removing this impurity, the revised activity trend of 1^st row transition metals in 1 M KOH is Ni-Fe > Co-Fe > Fe > Co > Ni.⁵ This new activity trend is the opposite of those previously reported. By using a quartz crystal microbalance to measure the electrode mass in situ during catalysis and an interdigitated array electrode to measure conductivity in situ we also report new insight into the origin of these OER trends.
With this developed understanding of the fundamental properties of our materials, we will also report progress on their integration into AEM test cells. There are many challenges in taking a catalyst from a lab test cell (stirred, 1 M KOH) and putting it into a practical solid-electrolyte electrolysis system where one needs also to consider ion, gas and liquid transport, as well as catalyst adhesion and electrode mechanical robustness. To address these challenges we have focused specifically on understanding the role that catalyst deposition method, electrode thickness, conductivity and composition play on performance and durability. Several promising integration methods will be presented that enable relatively high-performance AEM hydrogen production using earth abundant oxygen evolution electrocatalysts.
1)Trotochaud, L.; Young, S. L.; Ranney, J. K.; Boettcher, S.W. J. Am. Chem. Soc.2014, 136, 6744.
Burke, M.S.; Kast, M.; Trotochaud, L.; Boettcher, S.W. manuscript near submission to JACS.
2)Subbaraman, R.; Tripkovic, D.; Chan, K.-C.; Strmcnik, D.; Paulikas, A.P.; Hirunsit, P.; Chan, M.; Greeley, J.; Stamenkovic, V.; Markovic, N.M. Nat. Mater.2012, 11, 550.
3)Trotochaud, L.; Ranney, J.K.; Williams, K.N.; Boettcher, S.W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012, 134, 17253.
4)Burke, M.S.; Gaber, C.; Zou, S.; Kellon, J.; Pledger, E.; Boettcher, S.W. manuscript in progress.

Renewable power sources become essential in modern society. Due to the irreplaceability of hydrogen as future energy carrier for mobile, mass and buffer energy storage [1, 2] electrochemical water splitting is the most reliable technology which has the potential to be optimized for more efficient conversion and energy storage. While the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is well optimized, the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is intensively studied by both academia and industry because of the potential to increase the reaction rate. As a matter of fact, HER and OER cannot be treated separately in the electrolytic cell, the slower rate of the OER determines the overall reaction rate. Although the electrochemistry of oxygen was researched intensively [3], the reactions on the electrode surface have not been related to the defect structure and chemistry. Oxygen electrocatalysis is the operative point, where more efficient, chemically stable and economically reasonable electrode materials are required. (Double) perovskite materials have been reported to be good electrocatalysts [1,2]. The chemistry of the interface layers of the electrocatalytic films can be examined by state of the art methods like in situ high pressure ETEM, XPS and SEM [4,5] to achieve a better understanding how to improve oxygen evolution. Here, we report the assembly and characterization of perovskite Pr_xCo_1-xMnO₃ (PCMO) epitaxial thin film electrodes, which are promising as electrocatalysts for the OER. For comparison, epitaxial PCMO thin films as well as polycrystalline films on titanium substrates are characterized by potentiostatic and potentiodynamic methods. Systematically, the Pr content in the electrodes is varied and the dependence of oxygen activity on noble metal content is shown.
References:
1. A. Grimaud; K. J. May; C. E. Carlton; Y. L. Lee; M. Risch; W. T. Hong; J. Zhou; Y. Shao-Horn. Double perovskites as a family of highly active catalysts for oxygen evolution in alkaline solution. Nat. Commun., 4, 2439/1-7 (2013)
2. J. Suntivich; K. J. May; H. A. Gasteiger; J. B. Goodenough; Y. Shao-Horn. A Perovskite Oxide Optimized for Oxygen Evolution Catalysis from Molecular Orbital Principles. Science, 334, 1383-1385 (2011)
3. J.P. Hoare. Electrochemistry of Oxygen. Wiley (1968)
4. S. Raabe; D. Mierwaldt; J. Ciston; M. Uijttewaal; H. Stein; J. Hoffmann; Y. Zhu; P. Bloechl; C. Jooss. In Situ Electrochemical Electron Microscopy Study of Oxygen Evolution Activity of Doped Manganite Perovskites. Adv. Funct. Mater., 22, 3378-3388 (2012)
5. D. Mierwaldt; S. Mildner; R. Arrigo; A. Knop-Gericke; E. Franke; A. Blumenstein; J. Hoffmann; C. Jooss. In Situ XANES/XPS Investigation of Doped Manganese Perovskite Catalysts. Catalysts, 4, 129-145 (2014)

Spent coffee grounds, the solid residual wastes from coffee industry is an inexpensive, abundantly available renewable resource material. Every year about 6 million tons of this waste is generated worldwide. This work represents an efficient way of transforming spent coffee grounds to hetero-atom doped carbon to replace expensive metal based catalysts as electrodes in fuel cells. Unlike other techniques for preparing heteroatom doped carbon which involves prolonged time, special apparatus and reducing gases, the microwave technique employed for the synthesis affords unique high surface area carbon structures with exceptional properties. Also there is no need for the use of reducing or inert gases during the carbonization process. Ammonium polyphosphate is utilized to aid in the carbonization process and also to create defects in carbon lattice. The as-synthesized P, N co-doped carbon (PNDC) exhibited high BET surface area of ~507 m²/g. XPS revealed the material to contain about 1.90 % N and 3.02 % P. PNDC exhibited an intense O₂ reduction peak in alkaline media. The mechanism of O₂ reduction was discovered to be a 4 e-mediated process based on Rotating Disk Electrode studies. Also, the material exhibited good electrochemical stability which enables it to find practical applications in fuel cells.

To date, carbon-based materials including various carbon nanostructured materials have been extensively used as the most practical catalyst supports for fuel cell applications. However, carbon dissolution or corrosion caused by high electrode potential in the presence of O₂ and/or water has been identified as one of the main failure modes for the device operation. To address these issues, in recent years there has been a growing interest in developing alternative non-carbon-based materials for catalyst supports for the manufacture of fuel cell devices in order to improve their durability while simultaneously keeping catalysts activity efficient. Titanium nitride (TiN) has been attractive as a promising support material for the various dynamic operating conditions required in fuel cell applications. Its high electrical conductivity and outstanding electrochemi