Diffraction and Spectroscopic Studies of the Cobaltic Acid System HCoC2–DCoO2

Cooperative Fe sites on transition metal (oxy)hydroxides drive high oxygen evolution activity in base

Fe-containing transition-metal (oxy)hydroxides are highly active oxygen-evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts in alkaline media and ubiquitously form across many materials systems. The complexity and dynamics of the Fe sites within the (oxy)hydroxide have slowed understanding of how and where the Fe-based active sites form-information critical for designing catalysts and electrolytes with higher activity and stability. We show that where/how Fe species in the electrolyte incorporate into host Ni or Co (oxy)hydroxides depends on the electrochemical history and structural properties of the host material. Substantially less Fe is incorporated from Fe-spiked electrolyte into Ni (oxy)hydroxide at anodic potentials, past the nominally Ni2+/3+ redox wave, compared to during potential cycling. The Fe adsorbed under constant anodic potentials leads to impressively high per-Fe OER turn-over frequency (TOFFe) of ~40 s-1 at 350 mV overpotential which we attribute to under-coordinated "surface" Fe. By systematically controlling the concentration of surface Fe, we find TOFFe increases linearly with the Fe concentration. This suggests a changing OER mechanism with increased Fe concentration, consistent with a mechanism involving cooperative Fe sites in FeOx clusters.

Stabilization of a Mn-Co Oxide During Oxygen Evolution in Alkaline Media

Improving the stability of electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) through materials design has received less attention than improving their catalytic activity. We explored the effects of Mn addition to a cobalt oxide for stabilizing the catalyst by comparing single phase CoOx and (Co0.7Mn0.3)Ox films electrodeposited in alkaline solution. The obtained disordered films were classified as layered oxides using X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The CoOx films showed a constant decrease in the catalytic activity during cycling, confirmed by oxygen detection, while that of (Co0.7Mn0.3)Ox remained constant within error as measured by electrochemical metrics. These trends were rationalized based on XAS analysis of the metal oxidation states, which were Co2.7+ and Mn3.7+ in the bulk and similar near the surface of (Co0.7Mn0.3)Ox, before and after cycling. Thus, Mn in (Co0.7Mn0.3)Ox successfully stabilized the bulk catalyst material and its surface activity during OER cycling. The development of stabilization approaches is essential to extend the durability of OER catalysts.

3D atomic-scale imaging of mixed Co-Fe spinel oxide nanoparticles during oxygen evolution reaction

The three-dimensional (3D) distribution of individual atoms on the surface of catalyst nanoparticles plays a vital role in their activity and stability. Optimising the performance of electrocatalysts requires atomic-scale information, but it is difficult to obtain. Here, we use atom probe tomography to elucidate the 3D structure of 10 nm sized Co₂FeO₄ and CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles during oxygen evolution reaction (OER). We reveal nanoscale spinodal decomposition in pristine Co₂FeO₄. The interfaces of Co-rich and Fe-rich nanodomains of Co₂FeO₄ become trapping sites for hydroxyl groups, contributing to a higher OER activity compared to that of CoFe₂O₄. However, the activity of Co₂FeO₄ drops considerably due to concurrent irreversible transformation towards Co^IVO₂ and pronounced Fe dissolution. In contrast, there is negligible elemental redistribution for CoFe₂O₄ after OER, except for surface structural transformation towards (Fe^III, Co^III)₂O₃. Overall, our study provides a unique 3D compositional distribution of mixed Co-Fe spinel oxides, which gives atomic-scale insights into active sites and the deactivation of electrocatalysts during OER.

3D imaging of catalyst nanoparticles during reactions is important but challenging. Here, the authors provide atomic-scale details of compositional and structural changes of 10 nm sized Co-Fe spinel nanoparticles during oxygen evolution reactions.

In-situ structure and catalytic mechanism of NiFe and CoFe layered double hydroxides during oxygen evolution

NiFe and CoFe (MFe) layered double hydroxides (LDHs) are among the most active electrocatalysts for the alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we combine electrochemical measurements, operando X-ray scattering and absorption spectroscopy, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to elucidate the catalytically active phase, reaction center and the OER mechanism. We provide the first direct atomic-scale evidence that, under applied anodic potentials, MFe LDHs oxidize from as-prepared α-phases to activated γ-phases. The OER-active γ-phases are characterized by about 8% contraction of the lattice spacing and switching of the intercalated ions. DFT calculations reveal that the OER proceeds via a Mars van Krevelen mechanism. The flexible electronic structure of the surface Fe sites, and their synergy with nearest-neighbor M sites through formation of O-bridged Fe-M reaction centers, stabilize OER intermediates that are unfavorable on pure M-M centers and single Fe sites, fundamentally accounting for the high catalytic activity of MFe LDHs.

Activation of Catalytically Active Edge-Sharing Domains in Ca2FeCoO5 for Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Highly Alkaline Media

Rechargeable zinc-air batteries are considered as one of the possible candidates to replace conventional lithium-ion batteries. One of the requirements for effective battery operation is an oxygen evolution reaction (OER) that needs to be generated in a highly alkaline electrolyte. The A₂BB'O₅ brownmillerite-type Ca₂FeCoO₅ electrocatalyst having a 57 Pbcm symmetry exhibits very high electrocatalytic activity toward OER in 4 mol dm^-3 KOH. Our studies show that the electrocatalyst undergoes bulk amorphization upon OER and adequately activates catalytically active domains. The synchrotron radiation studies using the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) technique show that the central structural unit found in the polarized Ca₂FeCoO₅ is a cluster of edge-sharing CoO₆ octahedra. The electrochemical data indicate that OER preferentially takes place on the edge-sharing CoO₆ octahedra catalytic centers reconstructed in the brownmillerite-type electrocatalyst. The EXAFS second shell peaks at an interatomic distance of 2.8 Å are the fingerprints of the catalytically active domains.

Electrochemical Synthesis of Cation Vacancy-Enriched Ultrathin Bimetallic Oxyhydroxide Nanoplatelets for Enhanced Water Oxidation

Metal cation vacancies, a kind of structural defect, are viewed as a promising strategy for regulating the electronic properties to enhance the catalytic activity. However, the effective introduction of cation vacancies into electrocatalysts still remains a challenge. Herein, we present and elucidate a facile "fast reduction and in situ phase transformation" strategy at room temperature to simultaneously introduce abundant metal cation vacancies (cobalt vacancies and iron vacancies) into Co_0.5Fe_0.5OOH electrocatalysts. The incorporation of the Fe element could tailor the micrometer-sized ultrathin CoOOH platelets into nanometer-sized ultrathin Co_0.5Fe_0.5OOH platelets, and the tailoring process is accompanied with the generation of numerous cation vacancies. The defect degree of CoOOH could be effectively tuned by the incorporation of Fe, resulting in more active sites and lower energy barrier, and thereby the intrinsic catalytic activity of electrocatalysts was further enhanced. Compared to CoOOH, the optimized nanometer-sized ultrathin Co_0.5Fe_0.5OOH platelets (Co_0.5Fe_0.5OOH-NSUPs) require a smaller overpotential of 220 mV at a current density of 20 mA cm^-2, lower Tafel slope of 38.2 mV dec^-1, and better long-term durability without obvious decay for more than 200 h at a high current density of 40 mA cm^-2. The electrochemical performances are equal to or better than that of the reported first-class electrocatalysts. More importantly, this work provides new perspective for designing and fabricating efficient multimetal electrocatalysts in large scale.

Fe-Doping in Double Perovskite PrBaCo2(1-x)Fe2xO6-δ: Insights into Structural and Electronic Effects to Enhance Oxygen Evolution Catalyst Stability

Perovskite oxides have been gaining attention for its capability to be designed as an ideal electrocatalyst for oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Among promising candidates, the layered double perovskite—PrBaCo2O6-δ (PBC)—has been identified as the most active perovskite electrocatalyst for OER in alkaline media. For a single transition metal oxide catalyst, the addition of Fe enhances its electrocatalytic performance towards OER. To understand the role of Fe, herein, Fe is incorporated in PBC in different ratios, which yielded PrBaCo2(1-x)Fe2xCo6-δ (x = 0, 0.2 and 0.5). Fe-doped PBCF’s demonstrate enhanced OER activities and stabilities. Operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) revealed that Co is more stable in a lower oxidation state upon Fe incorporation by establishing charge stability. Hence, the degradation of Co is inhibited such that the perovskite structure is prolonged under the OER conditions, which allows it to serve as a platform for the oxy(hydroxide) layer formation. Overall, our findings underline synergetic effects of incorporating Fe into Co-based layered double perovskite in achieving a higher activity and stability during oxygen evolution reaction.

The secret behind the success of doping nickel oxyhydroxide with iron

Discovering better catalysts for water splitting is the holy grail of the renewable energy field. One of the most successful water oxidation catalysts is nickel oxyhydroxide (NiOOH), which is chemically active only as a result of doping with Fe. In order to shed light on how Fe improves efficiency, we perform Density Functional Theory +U (DFT+U) calculations of water oxidation reaction intermediates of Fe substitutional doped NiOOH. The results are analyzed while considering the presence of vacancies that we use as probes to test the effect of adding charge to the surface. We find that the smaller electronegativity of the Fe dopant relative to Ni allows the dopant to have several possible oxidation states with less energy penalty. As a result, the presence of vacancies which alters local oxidation states does not affect the low overpotential of Fe-doped NiOOH. We conclude that the secret to the success of doping NiOOH with iron is the ability of iron to easily change oxidation states, which is critical during the chemical reaction of water oxidation.

In situ/Operando studies of electrocatalysts using hard X-ray spectroscopy

This review focuses on the use of X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy techniques using hard X-rays to study electrocatalysts under in situ/operando conditions. We describe the importance and the versatility of methods in the study of electrodes in contact with the electrolytes, when being cycled through the catalytic potentials during the progress of the oxygen-evolution, oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution reactions. The catalytic oxygen evolution reaction is illustrated with examples using Co, Ni and Mn oxides, and Mo and Co sulfides are used as an example for the hydrogen evolution reaction. A bimetallic, bifunctional oxygen evolving and oxygen reducing Ni/Mn oxide is also presented. The various advantages and constraints in the use of these techniques and the future outlook are discussed.

Gold-supported two-dimensional cobalt oxyhydroxide (CoOOH) and multilayer cobalt oxide islands

Synthesis and characterization of layered cobalt oxides for model studies of electrochemical water splitting catalysts.

Delafossite structure of heterogenite polytypes (HCoO₂) by Raman and infrared micro-spectroscopy

Heterogenite is commonly referred in mineralogy literature as a cobalt oxy-hydroxide CoO(OH). However, detailed analysis of Raman and infrared spectra acquired on particularly well-crystallized natural samples of heterogenite suggests that the mineral can be characterized by a delafossite-type structure, with a general chemical formula ABO2. Indeed, the Raman spectrum of heterogenite, along the one with grimaldiite (HCrO2), lacks visible free OH-group vibrational modes, while the infrared spectrum shows strong hydrogen bond absorption bands. HCoO2 is thus a better formulation of heterogenite that describes more clearly its vibrational behavior and avoids the confusion in literature. Electronic backscattered diffraction (EBSD) is then used to distinguish and map the 2H and 3R heterogenite natural polytypes for the first time. The comparison of EBSD and Raman mappings clearly indicates that the 2H polytype is characterized by an additional peak at 1220 cm(-1). The presence/absence is therefore an efficient tool to distinguish both polytypes.

Oxyanion induced variations in domain structure for amorphous cobalt oxide oxygen evolving catalysts, resolved by X-ray pair distribution function analysis

Amorphous thin film oxygen evolving catalysts, OECs, of first-row transition metals show promise to serve as self-assembling photoanode materials in solar-driven, photoelectrochemical `artificial leaf' devices. This report demonstrates the ability to use high-energy X-ray scattering and atomic pair distribution function analysis, PDF, to resolve structure in amorphous metal oxide catalyst films. The analysis is applied here to resolve domain structure differences induced by oxyanion substitution during the electrochemical assembly of amorphous cobalt oxide catalyst films, Co-OEC. PDF patterns for Co-OEC films formed using phosphate, Pi, methylphosphate, MPi, and borate, Bi, electrolyte buffers show that the resulting domains vary in size following the sequence Pi < MPi < Bi. The increases in domain size for CoMPi and CoBi were found to be correlated with increases in the contributions from bilayer and trilayer stacked domains having structures intermediate between those of the LiCoOO and CoO(OH) mineral forms. The lattice structures and offset stacking of adjacent layers in the partially stacked CoMPi and CoBi domains were best matched to those in the LiCoOO layered structure. The results demonstrate the ability of PDF analysis to elucidate features of domain size, structure, defect content and mesoscale organization for amorphous metal oxide catalysts that are not readily accessed by other X-ray techniques. PDF structure analysis is shown to provide a way to characterize domain structures in different forms of amorphous oxide catalysts, and hence provide an opportunity to investigate correlations between domain structure and catalytic activity.

Mechanistic Investigations of Water Oxidation by a Molecular Cobalt Oxide Analogue: Evidence for a Highly Oxidized Intermediate and Exclusive Terminal Oxo Participation

Artificial photosynthesis (AP) promises to replace society's dependence on fossil energy resources via conversion of sunlight into sustainable, carbon-neutral fuels. However, large-scale AP implementation remains impeded by a dearth of cheap, efficient catalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Cobalt oxide materials can catalyze the OER and are potentially scalable due to the abundance of cobalt in the Earth's crust; unfortunately, the activity of these materials is insufficient for practical AP implementation. Attempts to improve cobalt oxide's activity have been stymied by limited mechanistic understanding that stems from the inherent difficulty of characterizing structure and reactivity at surfaces of heterogeneous materials. While previous studies on cobalt oxide revealed the intermediacy of the unusual Co(IV) oxidation state, much remains unknown, including whether bridging or terminal oxo ligands form O2 and what the relevant oxidation states are. We have addressed these issues by employing a homogeneous model for cobalt oxide, the [Co(III)4] cubane (Co4O4(OAc)4py4, py = pyridine, OAc = acetate), that can be oxidized to the [Co(IV)Co(III)3] state. Upon addition of 1 equiv of sodium hydroxide, the [Co(III)4] cubane is regenerated with stoichiometric formation of O2. Oxygen isotopic labeling experiments demonstrate that the cubane core remains intact during this stoichiometric OER, implying that terminal oxo ligands are responsible for forming O2. The OER is also examined with stopped-flow UV-visible spectroscopy, and its kinetic behavior is modeled, to surprisingly reveal that O2 formation requires disproportionation of the [Co(IV)Co(III)3] state to generate an even higher oxidation state, formally [Co(V)Co(III)3] or [Co(IV)2Co(III)2]. The mechanistic understanding provided by these results should accelerate the development of OER catalysts leading to increasingly efficient AP systems.

Reaction pathways for oxygen evolution promoted by cobalt catalyst

The in-depth understanding of the molecular mechanisms regulating the water oxidation catalysis is of key relevance for the rationalization and the design of efficient oxygen evolution catalysts based on earth-abundant transition metals. Performing ab initio DFT+U molecular dynamics calculations of cluster models in explicit water solution, we provide insight into the pathways for oxygen evolution of a cobalt-based catalyst (CoCat). The fast motion of protons at the CoCat/water interface and the occurrence of cubane-like Co-oxo units at the catalyst boundaries are the keys to unlock the fast formation of O-O bonds. Along the resulting pathways, we identified the formation of Co(IV)-oxyl species as the driving ingredient for the activation of the catalytic mechanism, followed by their geminal coupling with O atoms coordinated by the same Co. Concurrent nucleophilic attack of water molecules coming directly from the water solution is discouraged by high activation barriers. The achieved results suggest also interesting similarities between the CoCat and the Mn4Ca-oxo oxygen evolving complex of photosystem II.

59Co, 23Na NMR and electric field gradient calculations in the layered cobalt oxides NaCoO2 and HCoO2

59Co and 23Na NMR has been applied to the layered cobalt oxides NaCoO(2) and HCoO(2) at three different magnetic field strengths (4.7, 7.1 and 11.7T). The 59Co and 23Na quadrupole and anisotropic shift tensors have been determined by iterative fitting of the NMR line shapes at the three magnetic field strengths. Due to the large 59Co quadrupole interaction in NaCoO(2), a frequency-swept irradiation procedure was used to alleviate the limited bandwidth of the excitation. While the 59Co and 23Na shift and quadrupole coupling tensors in NaCoO(2) are found to be coincident and axially symmetric in agreement with the crystal symmetry requirements, the fits of the 59Co NMR spectra clearly show the presence of structural disorder in HCoO(2). The 23Na chemical shift anisotropy can be reproduced by shift tensor calculations using a point dipole model and considering that the magnetic susceptibility in NaCoO(2) is due to Van Vleck paramagnetism for Co(3+). Electric field gradient calculations using either the empirical point charge model or the ab initio full potential-linearized augmented plane wave method are compared with the experimental NMR data.