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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 775 records · Page 43
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Co 2 P-Pt Heterostructure Interfaces for Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution

Pt-based electrocatalysts are effective for the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER); however, their limited ability to facilitate water dissociation and suboptimal hydrogen binding energy (H BE ) in alkaline electrolytes result in slow reaction kinetics, which hinders their cost-efficiency and practical applications. This study reports the synthesis of Co 2 P-Pt heterostructure nanorods using a seed-mediated growth method, producing a high density of Co 2 P-Pt interfacial sites. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that electronic interactions at these interfaces optimize H BE on Pt, while the interfacial sites promote water dissociation. The Co 2 P-Pt nanorods demonstrate an overpotential of 14 mV at 10 mA cm −2 for the HER, highlighting the potential of precisely engineered metal-metal phosphide interfaces for enhancing electrocatalytic efficiency.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2026

Ternary Phosphides Ba M 2 P 2 : Tailoring Crystal and Electronic Structures Enables Highly Efficient HER Electrocatalysis

Binary transition metal phosphides and their solid solutions have emerged as promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) catalysts. Although many research endeavors have adopted strategies to vary compositions to optimize catalytic performance, they mainly focus on binary structures, which represent only a small fraction of the abundant phase space of structure types among transition metal phosphides. Here, the largely unexplored class of ternary and multinary ordered phosphides in catalysis comprises two or more metals with quite different chemical nature, concealing the structure–property relationships essential for advancing catalyst design. Here, we explored phosphides crystallizing in one of the most abundant ordered intermetallic structure types, —the ThCr 2 Si 2 type, —where square nets of 3d transition metal M and P atoms are separated by layers of electropositive Ba cations. Four ternary BaM 2 P 2 (M = Fe, Fe/Cu, Fe/Ni, Ni) catalysts were synthesized and characterized. BaNi 2 P 2 showed high HER activity in acidic electrolyte, which required an overpotential, η 10 , of only 62 mV to drive current density j = –10 mA/cm 2 and high stability with a potential drop rate of 0.25 mV/h. BaNi 2 P 2 outperformed other Ni-based catalysts, such as Ni 2 P and Ni 5 P 4 . Notably, at current densities above –170 mA/cm 2 , BaNi 2 P 2 outperformed the standard Pt electrode measured under identical conditions. Electronic structure analysis revealed a volcano-type activity trend among the four BaM 2 P 2 catalysts based on their d-band center positions, highlighting the role of electropositive Ba cations in shifting the Ni-3d orbitals into an optimal position.

BaNi2P2↗
DOE OSTI2017

Atomistic Insights into Nitrogen-Cycle Electrochemistry: A Combined DFT and Kinetic Monte Carlo Analysis of NO Electrochemical Reduction on Pt(100)

Electrocatalytic denitrification is a promising technology for the removal of NOx species in groundwater. However, a lack of understanding of the molecular pathways that control the overpotential and product distribution have limited the development of practical electrocatalysts, and additional atomic-level insights are needed to advance this field. Adsorbed NO has been identified as a key intermediate in the NOx electroreduction network, and the elementary steps by which it decomposes to NH4+, N2, NH3OH+, or N2O remain a subject of debate. Herein, we report a combined density functional theory (DFT) and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC) study of this reaction on Pt(100), a catalytic surface that is known to be suitable for the activation of strong covalent bonds, in acidic electrolytes. This approach describes the effects of coverage-dependent adsorbate–adsorbate interactions, water-mediated protonation kinetics and thermodynamics, and transient potential sweeps, on reaction rates and selectivities. The results predict NO stripping curves in excellent agreement with experiments while, at the same time, providing a mechanistic interpretation of observed current peaks. Furthermore, production of NH4+ products is traced to the rapid kinetics of N–O bond breaking in reactive intermediates, whereas rapid hydrogenation of surface N* species prevent competing pathways from forming either N2 or N2O. The combined DFT-kMC methodology thus provides a unique tool to describe the mechanism and energetics of platinum-catalyzed electroreduction in the nitrogen cycle, and this approach should also find application to related electrocatalytic processes that are of technological and environmental interest.

Chun, Hee-Joon↗
DOE OSTI2018

Ab Initio Simulation Explains the Enhancement of Catalytic Oxygen Evolution on CaMnO 3

Experimental results have shown promising catalytic activity for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on the perovskite-type material CaMnO 3 . Through density functional theory investigations, we study the OER mechanism on CaMnO 3 , on the basis of a thermodynamic stability approach. Our results reveal that the formation of Mn vacancies caused by the solubility of Mn enhances lattice oxygen activity, which then reduces the energy of the adsorbate *OOH and therefore loosens the lower overpotential limit predicted from the “scaling relationship”. This effect suggests that, by doping manganite oxides with soluble elements, we could enhance their OER catalytic activities due to the high surface lattice oxygen activity induced by surface metal ion vacancies.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Cobalt-Doped Black TiO 2 Nanotube Array as a Stable Anode for Oxygen Evolution and Electrochemical Wastewater Treatment

TiO 2 has long been recognized as a stable and reusable photocatalyst for water splitting and pollution control. However, it is an inefficient anode material in the absence of photoactivation due to its low electron conductivity. To overcome this limitation, a series of conductive TiO 2 nanotube array electrodes have been developed. Even though nanotube arrays are effective for electrochemical oxidation initially, deactivation is often observed within a few hours. To overcome the problem of deactivation, we have synthesized cobalt-doped Black-TiO 2 nanotube array (Co-Black NTA) electrodes that are stable for more than 200 h of continuous operation in a NaClO 4 electrolyte at 10 mA cm -2 . Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, and DFT simulations, we are able to show that bulk oxygen vacancies (Ov) are the primary source of the enhanced conductivity of Co-Black. Cobalt doping both creates and stabilizes surficial oxygen vacancies, Ov, and thus prevents surface passivation. The Co-Black electrodes outperform dimensionally stable IrO 2 anodes (DSA) in the electrolytic oxidation of organic-rich wastewater. Increasing the loading of Co leads to the formation of a CoO x film on top of Co-Black electrode. The CoO x /Co-Black composite electrode was found to have a lower OER overpotential (352 mV) in comparison to a DSA IrO 2 (434 mV) electrode and a stability that is greater than 200 h in a 1.0 M KOH electrolyte at a current density of 10 mA cm -2 .

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Role of Lattice Oxygen Participation in Understanding Trends in the Oxygen Evolution Reaction on Perovskites

Here, this study demonstrates the importance of considering lattice oxygen participation in understanding trends in the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on AB O 3 ( A = lanthanum or strontium, B = transition metal) perovskites. Using density functional theory, we show that the lattice oxygen mechanism (LOM) can lead to higher OER activity than the conventional adsorbate evolving mechanism (AEM) by minimizing the thermodynamically required overpotential. We also show that the OER activity volcano for AEM is universal for all perovskites, whereas that for LOM depends on the identity of the A cation in AB O 3 . This explains experimental observations that perovskites such as Pr 0.5 Ba 0.5 CoO 3-$δ$ and SrCoO 3-$δ$ show higher OER activities than the conventionally predicted optimum compounds such as LaNiO 3 and SrCoO 3 . Furthermore, we show that LOM is preferred to AEM in achieving bifunctional catalysts capable of promoting both OER and ORR. Using our overall activity volcano, we finally suggest several candidate materials that are predicted to be highly active for OER via LOM.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Crystallinity Dependence of Ruthenium Nanocatalyst toward Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

The development of highly active and durable inexpensive electrocatalysts for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) is still a formidable challenge. Herein, an ordered hexagonal-closed-packed (hcp)-Ru nanocrystal coated with a thin layer of N-doped carbon (hcp-Ru@NC) was fabricated through the thermal annealing of polydopamine (PDA)-coated Ru nanoparticle (RuNP@PDA). As an alternative to Pt/C catalyst, the hcp-Ru@NC nanocatalyst exhibited the small overpotential of 27.5 mV at a current density of 10 mA cm –2 , as well as long-term stability for HER in acid media. Interestingly, the HER performance of hcp-Ru is highly dependent on its crystallinity. The calculation from density functional theory (DFT) revealed that the difference in HER activity over various exposed surface causes the crystallinity-dependent property of hcp-Ru. The results of this study provided clues to guide the design of Ru-based inexpensive HER electrocatalyst.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Combining Experiment and Theory To Unravel the Mechanism of Two-Electron Oxygen Reduction at a Selective and Active Co-catalyst

In this work, we present a combination of comprehensive experimental and theoretical evidence to unravel the mechanism of two-electron oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) on a catalyst composed of mildly reduced graphene oxide supported on P50 carbon paper (mrGO/P50). This catalyst is unique in that it shows >99% selectivity toward H 2 O 2 , the highest mass activity to date, and essentially zero overpotential in base. Furthermore, the mrGO catalytically active site is unambiguously identified and presents a unique opportunity to investigate mechanisms of carbon-based catalysis in atomistic detail. A wide range of experiments at varying pH are reported: ORR onset potential, Tafel slopes, H/D kinetic isotope effects, and O 2 reaction order. With DFT reaction energies and known thermodynamic parameters, we calculate the potential and pH-dependent free energies of all possible intermediates in this ORR and propose simple kinetic models that give semiquantitative agreement with all experiments. Our results show that mrGO is semiconducting and cannot support the conventional mechanism of coherently coupled proton–electron transfers. The conducting P50 provides electrons for initiating the ORR via outer sphere electron transfer to O 2 (aq), while the semiconducting mrGO provides the active catalytic sites for adsorption of O 2 – (aq) or HO 2 (aq), depending upon electrolyte pH. Due to this unique synergistic effect, we describe the mrGO/P50 as a co-catalyst. Lastly, this concept implies departure from the traditional picture of predicting catalytic activity trends based on a single descriptor, and the co-catalyst design strategy may generally enable other semiconductors to function as electrocatalysts as well.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Partial Surface Selenization of Cobalt Sulfide Microspheres for Enhancing the Hydrogen Evolution Reaction

Electrocatalysis of water is a scalable and easily available source of the production of hydrogen (H 2 ), the future energy carrier. This drive for clean energy inspired us to develop an inexpensive, readily producible, highly active, and stable catalyst to replace current state of the art platinum catalysts. Building on the promising hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity of many pyrites, their structural tuning by different metals and nonmetals has been found to be effective in several instances. We present here one such effort by partial surface selenization of mesoporous cobalt sulfide material, which displayed long-term operational stability (for at least 25 h) besides attaining a current density of 100 mA cm –2 at an overpotential of 160 mV versus the reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE) (in acidic media). A low Tafel slope (of 52 mV dec –1 ) and high exchange current density ( j 0 ) (of 70 μA cm –2 ) make our catalyst better to most existing systems. More importantly, using a variety of analytical techniques, electrochemical measurements, and theoretical calculations, we have analyzed the morphology of the material and rationalized the key to the enhanced intrinsic activity (as compared to the meso-CoS 2 ) per active site. This study is expected to explain similar systems and modify approaches to enhancing the electrochemical activity of metal chalcogenides.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

Unusual Stability of a Bacteriochlorin Electrocatalyst under Reductive Conditions. A Case Study on CO 2 Conversion to CO

Photosynthetic CO 2 fixation is mediated by the enzyme RuBisCo, which employs a nonredox-active metal (Mg 2+ ) to bind CO 2 adjacent to an organic ligand that provides reducing equivalents for CO 2 fixation. Attempts to use porphyrins as ligands in reductive catalysis have typically encountered severe stability issues owing to ligand reduction. Here, a synthetic zinc–bacteriochlorin is reported as an effective and robust electrocatalyst for CO 2 reduction to CO with an overpotential of 330 mV, without undergoing porphyrin-like ligand degradation (or demetalation) even after prolonged bulk electrolysis. The reaction has a CO Faradaic efficiency of 92% and sustains a total current density of 2.3 mA/cm 2 at -1.9 V vs Ag/AgCl. DFT calculations highlight the molecular origin of the observed stability and provide insights into catalytic steps. Here, this bioinspired study opens avenues for the application of bacteriochlorin compounds for reductive electrocatalysis with extended life beyond that seen with porphyrin counterparts.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2018

S-Doped MoP Nanoporous Layer Toward High-Efficiency Hydrogen Evolution in pH-Universal Electrolyte

In this paper, we report a non-precious metal catalyst for high-efficiency hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). A self-organized S-doped MoP nanoporous layer (S-MoP NPL) is achieved through a facile electrochemical anodic process and a two-step chemical vapor deposition treatment, which was directly used as a binder-free catalyst for HER in pH-universal electrolytes. S-MoP NPL exhibits HER behavior with a low overpotential of 86 mV at 10 mA cm -1 and low Tafel slope of 34 mV dec -1 in acidic solution. Moreover, S-MoP NPL also shows high HER activity in basic and neutral electrolytes. Density functional theory (DFT) computations were carried out to support our experiment. The calculations show that the H 2 formation (via Volmer–Heyrovsky mechanism) from the reaction of a metal (Mo) absorbed hydride with a solvated proton is favored over S-MoP than MoS 2 . Both experimental and computational studies demonstrate that the extraordinary HER activity and stability performance displayed by a MoP catalyst can be enhanced by S-doping, opening up a promising paradigm for the conscious design of high-performance non-precious metal catalyst for hydrogen generation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

ZnO As an Active and Selective Catalyst for Electrochemical Water Oxidation to Hydrogen Peroxide

Electrochemical synthesis of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) via two-electron water oxidation reaction (2e-WOR) is an ideal process for delocalized production for water cleaning and other applications. Previously observed water oxidation catalysts have limited activity and selectivity, imposing a bottleneck for broad adoption of this technology. We determine ZnO as a new stable, nontoxic, active, and selective catalyst for 2e-WOR to generate H 2 O 2 . Using density functional theory calculations, we propose that the (1010) facet of ZnO is an effective catalyst for 2e-WOR and confirm the prediction experimentally. We synthesize ZnO nanoparticles with a high fraction of (1010) facets and find that this catalyst gives an overpotential of 40 mV at 0.1 mA/cm 2 and peak Faradaic efficiency of 81% toward H 2 O 2 evolution.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

The Role of Ru in Improving the Activity of Pd toward Hydrogen Evolution and Oxidation Reactions in Alkaline Solutions

Improving the reaction kinetics of hydrogen evolution and oxidation reactions (HER/HOR) in alkaline media is critical to promote the development of alkaline fuel cells and electrolyzers. Here, we prepared Pd 3 Ru alloy nanocatalysts with Ru segregated on the surfaces, forming adatoms and clusters. This structure dramatically lowered the overpotential of Pd toward HER in 1 M KOH by 104 mV at 10 mA cm –2 . The HER activity was even higher than that of Pt (6 mV improvement at 10 mA cm –2 ). Theoretical simulation results revealed that Ru adatoms/clusters on the surface could weaken the hydrogen-binding energy and promote the OH adsorption, consequently lowering the reaction barrier of the rate-determining step in HER. Here, our findings are of significance for clarifying the role of Ru in bimetallic catalysts and rational design of more active catalysts for HER/HOR.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2019

Silver-Intermediated Perovskite La 0.9 FeO 3–δ toward High-Performance Cathode Catalysts for Nonaqueous Lithium–Oxygen Batteries

Development of efficient cathode catalysts is crucial for achieving high-performance rechargeable lithium–oxygen batteries. Herein, a simple one-step electrospun method was applied to obtain a silver-modified perovskite La 0.9 FeO 3–δ (Ag@LFO) as an efficient cathode catalyst. The synthesized catalyst has two characteristics: first, the doping of Ag led to a tailored electronic structure including the generation of Fe 4+ ; second, the in situ grown Ag exhibits a stronger interaction with perovskite. These two advantages result in high oxygen adsorbability and increased percentage of highly active oxygen species. Furthermore, film-like Li 2 O 2 was observed during discharge on the Ag@LFO cathode, which is beneficial for decomposition during recharge, whereas Li 2 O 2 generated on the LFO cathode was largely toroidal. Density functional theory calculations were used to discuss the Li 2 O 2 growth mechanism. As a result, compared to La 0.9 FeO 3–δ and post-loading silver-decorated La 0.9 FeO 3–δ (Ag/LFO), Ag@LFO exhibits lower overpotential, improved rate-capability, higher discharge specific capacity, and especially promoted cycling performance that is triple that of LFO.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Understanding the Influence of Cation Doping on the Surface Chemistry of NaTaO 3 from First Principles

Sodium tantalate, NaTaO 3 , has attracted interest as one of the few photocatalysts capable to perform overall water splitting, that is, simultaneously produce oxygen and hydrogen from water. In particular, an interesting and not fully understood observation is that the efficiency of NaTaO 3 increases dramatically in the presence of cation doping. To obtain better insight into the origin of this effect, we use first- principles calculations to investigate the fundamental structural, electronical, and chemical properties of pristine and Sr-doped NaTaO 3 , a system for which several experimental studies have recently become available. Our results show that Sr donor-acceptor codoping at Na and Ta sites significantly reduces the formation energy of the Sr dopants. Further study of the energetics of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) shows a substantial reduction of the OER overpotential for the codoped material, consistent with recent suggestions that codoping is crucial for increasing NaTaO 3 ’s efficiency. Finally, the detailed insights provided by our work could benefit the design and preparation of new efficient catalysts based on NaTaO 3 .

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2019

Scanning Electrochemical Flow Cell with Online Mass Spectroscopy for Accelerated Screening of Carbon Dioxide Reduction Electrocatalysts

Electrochemical conversion of carbon dioxide into valuable chemicals or fuels is an increasingly important strategy for achieving carbon neutral technologies. The lack of a sufficiently active and selective electrocatalyst, particularly for synthesizing highly reduced products, motivates accelerated screening to evaluate new catalyst spaces. Traditional techniques, which couple electrocatalyst operation with analytical techniques to measure product distributions, enable screening throughput at 1–10 catalysts per day. In this paper, a combinatorial screening instrument is designed for MS detection of hydrogen, methane, and ethylene in quasi-real-time during catalyst operation experiments in an electrochemical flow cell. Coupled with experiment modeling, product detection during cyclic voltammetry (CV) enables modeling of the voltage-dependent partial current density for each detected product. Here, we demonstrate the technique by using the well-established thin film Cu catalysts and by screening a Pd–Zn composition library in carbonate-buffered aqueous electrolyte. The rapid product distribution characterization over a large range of overpotential makes the instrument uniquely suited for accelerating screening of electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2025

Oxygen Evolution on Mechanically Strained TiO2/NiTi: Implications of Compositional Heterogeneity at (Photo)Electrocatalytic Interfaces

The adsorption and activation energetics underpinning small molecule conversion on heterogeneous (photo)electrocatalysts are intrinsically tied to catalyst surface properties. Absent compositional characterization techniques with sufficient interface sensitivity, however, (photo)electrochemical performance can be misinterpreted in the context of bulk or near-surface material properties. Here we provide a fundamental investigation of the convoluting role of near-surface compositional heterogeneity in the interpretation of (photo)electrochemical alkaline oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity, highlighting challenges in correlating composition measured by surface- and near-surface-sensitive probes. TiO2 thin films grown by air-annealing the superelastic alloy Nitinol (TiO2/NiTi) crack under tensile mechanical strain, increasing the number of electrochemically active Ni sites (Ni site density) that are probed via voltammetric features corresponding to Ni3+/Ni2+ redox events. (Photo)electrochemical OER kinetics trend with Ni site density, with overpotentials and Tafel slopes decreasing for Ni site densities < 1013 Ni/cm2geo and asymptotically approaching the performance of the base NiTi substrate for Ni site densities > 1013 Ni/cm2geo. Photoelectrochemical fill factors follow similar Ni site density dependent trends. When probing unstrained TiO2/NiTi, Ni site densities are two orders of magnitude higher when comparing near-surface-sensitive techniques (e.g., X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), and scanning transmission electron microscopy-energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (STEM-EDS)) to surface-sensitive electrochemical measurements. This result highlights the challenge of correlating kinetic performance with intrinsic surface properties of electrochemical interfaces in the presence of near-surface compositional heterogeneity. Further, it reinforces the importance of fundamental investigations of surfaces with well-controlled composition and structure and the need for physically grounded and self-consistent interpretation of multiple near-surface characterization techniques.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗