Publication date: 6th November 2020
Developing new materials with improved catalytic properties is one of the most critical challenges facing the sustainable production of clean and renewable energy sources. In order to achieve this long-standing goal, an atomistic understanding of the processes that place at the electrode-electrolyte interface is required. Here we introduce our customized experimental set-up, Fig. 1 (a), which enables structural, chemical and electrochemical characterization on exactly the same sample, by allowing the transfer of the catalyst from ultra-high vacuum (UHV) –compatible with surface science techniques- to an electrochemical cell in a controlled argon gas atmosphere. This optimized approach enables the direct correlation between the surface composition (X-Ray photoemission spectroscopy, XPS) and structure (Low energy electron diffraction, LEED, and Scanning tunneling microscopy, STM) at the atomic scale, and the macroscopic response of the catalyst (Cyclic Voltammetry, CV, Linear Sweep Voltammetry, LSV, and Chronoamperometry, CA.).
We applied experimental approach to study the potential induced structure changes during the electrochemical oxidation of Au(111) in 0.05M H2SO4, which results in the formation of an oxide film that influences the catalytic performance of the material. Surface electrooxidation of gold on acidic media is a widely discussed problem, involving different processes such as adsorption of (bi)sulfatesurface ions, competitive hydroxile adsorption, formation of gold surface (hydr)oxides by OH or O exchange with metal atoms and subsequent growth of a bulk oxide1–3. Combining ex-situ XPS and LEED characterization before and after potential steps we have monitored the surface changes within electrochemical window, Fig. 1 (b) up to oxide formation near the Oxygen Evolution Reaction (OER) potential.
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.