Abstract
Cobalt-containing perovskite oxides are promising electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in alkaline electrolyzers. However, a lack of fundamental understanding of oxide surfaces impedes rational catalyst design for improved activity and stability. We couple electrochemical studies of epitaxial La1−xSrxCoO3−δ films with in situ and operando ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the surface stoichiometry, adsorbates, and electronic structure. In situ investigations spanning electrode compositions in a humid environment indicate that hydroxyl and carbonate affinity increase with Sr content, leading to an increase in binding energy of metal core levels and the valence band edge from the formation of a surface dipole. The maximum in hydroxylation at 40% Sr is commensurate with the highest OER activity, where activity scales with greater hole carrier concentration and mobility. Operando measurements of the 20% Sr-doped oxide in alkaline electrolyte indicate that the surface stoichiometry remains constant during OER, supporting the idea that the oxide electrocatalyst is stable and behaves as a metal, with the voltage drop confined to the electrolyte. Furthermore, hydroxyl and carbonate species are present on the electrode surface even under oxidizing conditions, and may impact the availability of active sites or the binding strength of adsorbed intermediates via adsorbate–adsorbate interactions. For covalent oxides with facile charge transfer kinetics, the accumulation of hydroxyl species with oxidative potentials suggests the rate of reaction could be limited by proton transfer kinetics. This operando insight will help guide modeling of self-consistent oxide electrocatalysts, and highlights the potential importance of carbonates in oxygen electrocatalysis.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by the Skoltech-MIT Center for Electrochemical Energy and the Cooperative Agreement between the Masdar Institute, Abu Dhabi, UAE and MIT (02/MI/MIT/CP/11/07633/GEN/G/00). K.A.S. was supported in part by the Linus Pauling Distinguished Post-doctoral Fellowship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL LDRD 69319). PNNL is a multiprogram national laboratory operated for DOE by Battelle. This research used beamlines 9.3.2 and 9.3.1 at the Advanced Light Source, which is a DOE Office of Science User Facility under contract no. DE-AC02-05CH11231. The PLD film growth was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, a DOE Office of Science User Facility.
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Stoerzinger, K.A., Renshaw Wang, X., Hwang, J. et al. Speciation and Electronic Structure of La1−xSrxCoO3−δ During Oxygen Electrolysis. Top Catal 61, 2161–2174 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-018-1070-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-018-1070-7