How do Cu nanocatalysts degrade in the presence of CO2? Rui Serra-Maia, Eric Stach, and their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory used their Hummingbird Scientific in-situ liquid electrochemical TEM sample holder (https://lnkd.in/guhTaK9) to investigate mechanisms of Cu nanocatalyst corrosion under various conditions, including CO2 evolution reaction (CO2ER) conditions, sub-onset for CO2ER (EWE?= 0?V vs. SHE’), and electroless conditions with CO2 exposure. Copper degradation was observed in the presence of CO2 below the threshold conditions required for CO2ER and without applied bias, while no Cu degradation was observed without CO2?even at EWE?capable of driving CO2ER. Oxidized surfaces are observed in particles corroded in CO2, but not in those exposed to CO2-free electrolytes. DFT calculations indicate that CO2?can behave as a dissolution agent for copper and copper-oxide surfaces, suggesting that formate-intermediate molecules are a key driver of corrosion. The study highlights the utility of the liquid-electrochemical cell in the study of nanocatalyst degradation and microenvironmental factors. See the comments below for a link to the full paper. ?? Follow?Hummingbird Scientific?to stay up to date on the latest in-situ TEM news. #TEM #electrochemistry #nanoparticles #hummingbirdscientific #catalysis #materialsscience #LPTEM #insitu #CO2ER #DFT
Visit https://hummingbirdscientific.com/products/liquid/ to learn more about Hummingbird Scientific’s in-situ liquid flow TEM sample holder and other in-situ liquid electrochemical applications. Read more about this work, which was published in iScience, here: https://hummingbirdscientific.com/Cu_catalyst_CO2 To learn more about other exciting in-situ TEM, SEM, and X-ray characterization using Hummingbird Scientific products, check out our news page: https://hummingbirdscientific.com/category/news-post/.