Publication date: 21st July 2025
Recently, the search for better and more cost-effective catalysts to facilitate chemical conversion reactions for various green energy applications has driven the widespread development and adoption of operando techniques. Particularly, there is significant interest in understanding the catalysts for the electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrogen-containing species due to their potential for generating higher-value products. The cathodic conditions of these reactions also lead to restructuring of the pre-catalysts through various processes, among which the redox transformations that occur upon potential application can result in catalyst structures that are drastically different from the pre-catalyst. Here, I will discuss my group's efforts using electrochemical liquid cell transmission electron microscopy (EC-TEM) to follow the restructuring of cubic copper(I) oxide pre-catalysts during carbon dioxide [1] and nitrate reduction [2] in a spatially and temporally resolved manner. We show that the different electrolytes used in the two reactions interestingly lead to drastically different restructuring pathways under similar applied potentials. These results illustrate how the interplay between the catalyst and electrolyte environment can not only lead to the creation of more complex catalyst motifs but also the transient stabilization of (hydr)oxide species.
This work was partially funded by European Research Council under grant ERC-OPERANDOCAT (ERC-725915), the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) under the grant Catlab (03EW0015B), the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under project number 406944504–SPP 2080 and Germany’s Excellence Strategy–EXC 2008–390540038 UniSysCat. See Wee also acknowledges the DFG project No.542011561 for travel support.
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