AI Article Synopsis
- The electrocatalytic processes for water oxidation and carbon dioxide reduction provide sustainable ways to produce fuels, but there's a need for better and more affordable catalysts.
- New materials are essential as current fuel cells often depend on expensive precious metals.
- This text discusses the application of vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy to enhance our understanding of the mechanisms involved in these electrocatalytic reactions, specifically focusing on water and carbon dioxide interactions at electrode interfaces.
Article Abstract
The electrocatalytic oxidation of water coupled to the reduction of carbon dioxide, to make carbon based products, or the reduction of protons to provide hydrogen, offers a sustainable route to generating useful fuels. However new improved electrocatalysts and electrode materials are needed for these reactions. Similarly fuel cells for fuel utilisation rely on precious metal electrodes and new lower-cost materials are needed. Developing efficient catalysts for sustainable fuel generation can be accelerated with an improved understanding of the underlying mechanisms. Herein, we present a perspective on the use of vibrational sum-frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy to study such electrocatalytic mechanisms. We briefly outline the basic principles of VSFG spectroscopy pertinent to the study of electrochemical interfaces. We then review the use of VSFG to study water at charged and electrode interfaces, relevant to the mechanisms of water oxidation, the mechanisms of alcohol oxidation and also molecular electrocatalysts for carbon dioxide reduction.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/c9cp02225b | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Dissecting the Molecular Structure of the Air/Ice Interface from Quantum Simulations of the Sum-Frequency Generation Spectrum.
J Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, United States.
Ice interfaces are pivotal in mediating key chemical and physical processes such as heterogeneous chemical reactions in the environment, ice nucleation, and cloud microphysics. At the ice surface, water molecules form a quasi-liquid layer (QLL) with properties distinct from those of the bulk. Despite numerous experimental and theoretical studies, a molecular-level understanding of the QLL has remained elusive.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecular orientation of dielectric layers at indigo/dielectric interfaces impacts the ordering of indigo films in organic field-effect transistors.
J Chem Phys
January 2025
Graduate School of Engineering, Chiba University, 1-33, Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba, Chiba 263-8522, Japan.
Organic multilayer systems, which are stacked layers of different organic materials, are used in various organic electronic devices such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) and organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). In particular, OFETs are promising as key components in flexible electronic devices. In this study, we investigated how the inclusion of an insulating tetratetracontane (TTC) interlayer in ambipolar indigo-based OFETs can be used to alter the crystallinity and electrical properties of the indigo charge transport layer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHydrogen bonding blues: Vibrational spectroscopy of the TIP3P water model.
J Chem Phys
January 2025
Department of Chemistry, Boston University, 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
The computational spectroscopy of water has proven to be a powerful tool for probing the structure and dynamics of chemical systems and for providing atomistic insight into experimental vibrational spectroscopic results. However, such calculations have been limited for biochemical systems due to the lack of empirical vibrational frequency maps for the TIP3P water model, which is used in many popular biomolecular force fields. Here, we develop an empirical map for the TIP3P model and evaluate its efficacy for reproducing the experimental vibrational spectroscopy of water.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA sum-frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy studies on buried liquid/liquid interfaces of CCl4/[Cnmim][TFSA] (n = 4 and 8) hydrophobic ionic liquids.
J Chem Phys
January 2025
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
The liquid/liquid interfaces of room-temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) play a pivotal role in chemical reactions owing to their characteristic microscopic structure, yet the structure of hydrophobic liquid/RTIL interfaces remains unclear. We studied the structure at the liquid/liquid interfaces of carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) and 1-alkyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)amide ([Cnmim][TFSA]; n = 4 and 8) RTILs using infrared-visible sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. A comparison of the SFG spectra of the CCl4/RTIL and air/RTIL interfaces revealed that the solvation of the alkyl chains of the [Cnmim]+ cations by CCl4 reduces the number of gauche defects in the alkyl chain and the interface number density of the cation at the CCl4 interface.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConformationally Adaptable Extractant Flexes Strong Lanthanide Reverse-Size Selectivity.
J Am Chem Soc
January 2025
Chemical Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, United States.
Chemical selectivity is traditionally understood in the context of rigid molecular scaffolds with precisely defined local coordination and chemical environments that ultimately facilitate a given transformation of interest. By contrast, nature leverages dynamic structures and strong coupling to enable specific interactions with target species in otherwise complex media. Taking inspiration from nature, we demonstrate unconventional selectivity in the solvent extraction of light over heavy lanthanides using a conformationally flexible ligand called octadecyl acyclopa (ODA).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!