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Two-Dimensional Materials as Catalysts for Energy Conversion

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Abstract

Although large efforts have been dedicated to studying two-dimensional materials for catalysis, a rationalization of the associated trends in their intrinsic activity has so far been elusive. In the present work we employ density functional theory to examine a variety of two-dimensional materials, including, carbon based materials, hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), transition metal dichalcogenides (e.g. MoS2, MoSe2) and layered oxides, to give an overview of the trends in adsorption energies. By examining key reaction intermediates relevant to the oxygen reduction, and oxygen evolution reactions we find that binding energies largely follow the linear scaling relationships observed for pure metals. This observation is very important as it suggests that the same simplifying assumptions made to correlate descriptors with reaction rates in transition metal catalysts are also valid for the studied two-dimensional materials. By means of these scaling relations, for each reaction we also identify several promising candidates that are predicted to exhibit a comparable activity to the state-of-the-art catalysts.

Graphical Abstract

Scaling relationship for the chemisorption energies of OH* and OOH* on various 2D materials.

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge support from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Sciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, to the SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis. S.S and M.K acknowledge support from the Global Climate Energy Project (GCEP) at Stanford University (Fund No. 52454).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, 443 Via Ortega, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Samira Siahrostami, Charlie Tsai, Mohammadreza Karamad, Max García-Melchor & Jens K. Nørskov

  2. SUNCAT Center for Interface Science and Catalysis, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA

    Charlie Tsai, Ralph Koitz, Max García-Melchor, Michal Bajdich, Aleksandra Vojvodic, Frank Abild-Pedersen, Jens K. Nørskov & Felix Studt

  3. Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ralph Koitz

  4. Institute of Catalysis Research and Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Hermann-von-Helmholtz Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany

    Felix Studt

  5. Institute for Chemical Technology and Polymer Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engesserstr. 18, 76131, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Felix Studt

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  1. Samira Siahrostami
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  2. Charlie Tsai
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  3. Mohammadreza Karamad
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Correspondence to Felix Studt.

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Siahrostami, S., Tsai, C., Karamad, M. et al. Two-Dimensional Materials as Catalysts for Energy Conversion. Catal Lett 146, 1917–1921 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10562-016-1837-z

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