RESUMEN
Understanding hydrogen diffusion is important for applications such as hydrogen storage and spillover materials. On semiconductors, where paired electron acceptors and donors stabilize each other, the hydrogen diffusion depends on the number of adsorbed fragments. Using density functional theory, we investigate the effects of preadsorbed hydrogens on activation energy and reaction path for hydrogen diffusion on MgO(100): the presence of an unpaired hydrogen causes a diffusion, on O-sites, above the surface with a lower activation energy compared to the case of paired hydrogens where the diffusion distorts the surface. This effect is missing for diffusion on Mg-sites.
RESUMEN
Progress in the field of electrocatalysis is often hampered by the difficulty in identifying the active site on an electrode surface. Herein we combine theoretical analysis and electrochemical methods to identify the active surfaces in a manganese oxide bi-functional catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). First, we electrochemically characterize the nanostructured α-Mn(2)O(3) and find that it undergoes oxidation in two potential regions: initially, between 0.5 V and 0.8 V, a potential region relevant to the ORR and, subsequently, between 0.8 V and 1.0 V, a potential region between the ORR and the OER relevant conditions. Next, we perform density function theory (DFT) calculations to understand the changes in the MnO(x) surface as a function of potential and to elucidate reaction mechanisms that lead to high activities observed in the experiments. Using DFT, we construct surface Pourbaix and free energy diagrams of three different MnO(x) surfaces and identify 1/2 ML HO* covered Mn(2)O(3) and O* covered MnO(2), as the active surfaces for the ORR and the OER, respectively. Additionally, we find that the ORR occurs through an associative mechanism and that its overpotential is highly dependent on the stabilization of intermediates through hydrogen bonds with water molecules. We also determine that OER occurs through direct recombination mechanism and that its major source of overpotential is the scaling relationship between HOO* and HO* surface intermediates. Using a previously developed Sabatier model we show that the theoretical predictions of catalytic activities match the experimentally determined onset potentials for the ORR and the OER, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Consequently, the combination of first-principles theoretical analysis and experimental methods offers an understanding of manganese oxide oxygen electrocatalysis at the atomic level, achieving fundamental insight that can potentially be used to design and develop improved electrocatalysts for the ORR and the OER and other important reactions of technological interest.
RESUMEN
An overview of a collaborative experimental and theoretical effort toward efficient hydrogen production via photoelectrochemical splitting of water into di-hydrogen and di-oxygen is presented here. We present state-of-the-art experimental studies using hematite and TiO(2) functionalized with gold nanoparticles as photoanode materials, and theoretical studies on electro and photo-catalysis of water on a range of metal oxide semiconductor materials, including recently developed implementation of self-interaction corrected energy functionals.
RESUMEN
Based on density functional theory (DFT) calculations we study the electrochemical chlorine evolution reaction on rutile (110) oxide surfaces. First we construct the Pourbaix surface diagram for IrO(2) and RuO(2), and from this we find the chlorine evolution reaction intermediates and identify the lowest overpotential at which all elementary reaction steps in the chlorine evolution reaction are downhill in free energy. This condition is then used as a measure for catalytic activity. Linear scaling relations between the binding energies of the intermediates and the oxygen binding energies at cus-sites are established for MO(2) (M being Ir, Ru, Pt, Ti). The linear relations form the basis for constructing a generalized surface phase diagram where two parameters, the potential and the binding energy of oxygen, are needed to determine the surface composition. We calculate the catalytic activity as function of the oxygen binding energy, giving rise to a Sabatier volcano. By combining the surface phase diagram and the volcano describing the catalytic activity, we find that the reaction mechanism differs depending on catalyst material. The flexibility in reaction path means that the chlorine evolution activity is high for a wide range of oxygen binding energies. We find that the required overpotential for chlorine evolution is lower than the overpotential necessary for oxygen evolution.