Operando investigation of Au-MnOx thin films with improved activity for the oxygen evolution reaction

Rasmus Frydendal; Linsey C. Seitz; Dimosthenis Sokaras; Tsu Chien Weng; Dennis Nordlund; Ib Chorkendorff; Ifan E.L. Stephens; Thomas F. Jaramillo

doi:10.1016/j.electacta.2017.01.085

Operando investigation of Au-MnO_x thin films with improved activity for the oxygen evolution reaction

Rasmus Frydendal, Linsey C. Seitz, Dimosthenis Sokaras, Tsu Chien Weng, Dennis Nordlund, Ib Chorkendorff, Ifan E.L. Stephens^*, Thomas F. Jaramillo

^*Corresponding author for this work

Chemical and Biological Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

The electrochemical splitting of water holds great potential as a method for producing clean fuels by storing electricity from intermittent energy sources. The efficiency of such a process would be greatly facilitated by incorporating more active catalysts based on abundant materials for the oxygen evolution reaction. Manganese oxides are promising as catalysts for this reaction. Recent reports show that their activity can be drastically enhanced when modified with gold. Herein, we investigate highly active mixed Au-MnO_x thin films for the oxygen evolution reaction, which exhibit more than five times improvement over pure MnO_x. These films are characterized with operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, which reveal that Mn assumes a higher oxidation state under reaction conditions when Au is present. The magnitude of the enhancement is correlated to the size of the Au domains, where larger domains are the more beneficial.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	22-28
Number of pages	7
Journal	Electrochimica Acta
Volume	230
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electacta.2017.01.085
State	Published - Mar 10 2017

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Danish Ministry of Science's UNIK initiative, Catalysis for Sustainable Energy. This work was partially supported by the US Department of Energy, Basic Energy Science through the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis. LCS received fellowship support from the DARE Doctoral Fellowship supported by the Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF). Use of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences under Contract No. DE-AC02-76SF00515. This work was supported by a research grant (9455) from VILLUM FONDEN.

Keywords

Electrocatalysis
Operando study
Water oxidation
X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Chemical Engineering
Electrochemistry

Access to Document

10.1016/j.electacta.2017.01.085

Cite this

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title = "Operando investigation of Au-MnOx thin films with improved activity for the oxygen evolution reaction",

abstract = "The electrochemical splitting of water holds great potential as a method for producing clean fuels by storing electricity from intermittent energy sources. The efficiency of such a process would be greatly facilitated by incorporating more active catalysts based on abundant materials for the oxygen evolution reaction. Manganese oxides are promising as catalysts for this reaction. Recent reports show that their activity can be drastically enhanced when modified with gold. Herein, we investigate highly active mixed Au-MnOx thin films for the oxygen evolution reaction, which exhibit more than five times improvement over pure MnOx. These films are characterized with operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, which reveal that Mn assumes a higher oxidation state under reaction conditions when Au is present. The magnitude of the enhancement is correlated to the size of the Au domains, where larger domains are the more beneficial.",

keywords = "Electrocatalysis, Operando study, Water oxidation, X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy",

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AU - Frydendal, Rasmus

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AU - Sokaras, Dimosthenis

AU - Weng, Tsu Chien

AU - Nordlund, Dennis

AU - Chorkendorff, Ib

AU - Stephens, Ifan E.L.

AU - Jaramillo, Thomas F.

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AB - The electrochemical splitting of water holds great potential as a method for producing clean fuels by storing electricity from intermittent energy sources. The efficiency of such a process would be greatly facilitated by incorporating more active catalysts based on abundant materials for the oxygen evolution reaction. Manganese oxides are promising as catalysts for this reaction. Recent reports show that their activity can be drastically enhanced when modified with gold. Herein, we investigate highly active mixed Au-MnOx thin films for the oxygen evolution reaction, which exhibit more than five times improvement over pure MnOx. These films are characterized with operando X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy, which reveal that Mn assumes a higher oxidation state under reaction conditions when Au is present. The magnitude of the enhancement is correlated to the size of the Au domains, where larger domains are the more beneficial.

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