In Situ/Operando Electrocatalyst Characterization by X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy

By Janis Timoshenko, B. Roldán Cuenya. Chemical Reviews, 2020

681 citations recorded by the source corpus.

During the last decades, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) has become an indispensable method for probing the structure and composition of heterogeneous catalysts, revealing the nature of the active sites and establishing links between structural motifs in a catalyst, local electronic structure, and catalytic properties. Here we discuss the fundamental principles of the XAS method and describe the progress in the instrumentation and data analysis approaches undertaken for deciphering X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) spectra. Recent usages of XAS in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, with emphasis on examples concerning electrocatalysis, will be presented. The latter is a rapidly developing field with immense industrial applications but also unique challenges in terms of the experimental characterization restrictions and advanced modeling approaches required. This review will highlight the new insight that can be gained with XAS on complex real-world electrocatalysts including their working mechanisms and the dynamic processes taking place in the course of a chemical reaction. More specifically, we will discuss applications of in situ and operando XAS to probe the catalyst’s interactions with the environment (support, electrolyte, ligands, adsorbates, reaction products, and intermediates) and its structural, chemical, and electronic transformations as it adapts to the reaction conditions.

Subfields: Materials Chemistry, Radiation, Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7572c444cd5006492f1380ca9cea66bbf77d1f7c

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Materials Chemistry

1. P. Strasser
2. Karen Chan
3. S. Boettcher
4. B. Roldán Cuenya
5. B. Seger
6. I. Stephens
7. A. Varela
8. J. Rossmeisl

In Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment

1. P. Strasser
2. Karen Chan
3. A. Varela
4. B. Roldán Cuenya
5. I. Stephens
6. J. Rossmeisl
7. M. Koper
8. A. Bagger

Citations in the corpus

• 2022 roadmap on low temperature electrochemical CO2 reduction (2022, background): “For example, Raman spectroscopy can track the surface binding of reaction intermediates during CO2RR [77], whereas x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) allows us to probe the catalyst structure, composition and oxidation state [78].”