Titanium Oxycarbide as Platinum-Free Electrocatalyst for Ethanol Oxidation.

The compound material titanium oxycarbide (TiOC) is found to be an effective electrocatalyst for the electrochemical oxidation of ethanol to CO. The complete course of this reaction is one of the main challenges in direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). While TiOC has previously been investigated as catalyst support material only, in this study we show that TiOC alone is able to oxidize ethanol to acetaldehyde without the need of expensive noble metal catalysts like Pt.

True Nature of the Transition-Metal Carbide/Liquid Interface Determines Its Reactivity.

Compound materials, such as transition-metal (TM) carbides, are anticipated to be effective electrocatalysts for the carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CORR) to useful chemicals. This expectation is nurtured by density functional theory (DFT) predictions of a break of key adsorption energy scaling relations that limit CORR at parent TMs. Here, we evaluate these prospects for hexagonal MoC in aqueous electrolytes in a multimethod experiment and theory approach.

An ultra-flexible modular high vacuum setup for thin film deposition.

A modular high vacuum chamber dedicated to thin film deposition is presented. We detail the vacuum and gas infrastructure required to operate two highly flexible chambers simultaneously, with a focus on evaporation techniques (thermal and electron beam) and magnetron sputtering, including baking equipment to remove residual water from the chamber. The use of O-ring-sealed flat flanges allows a tool-free assembly process, in turn enabling rapid changes of the whole setup.