Kelsey A. Stoerzinger

Toward the rational design of non-precious transition metal oxides for oxygen electrocatalysis

In this Review, we discuss the state-of-the-art understanding of non-precious transition metal oxides that catalyze the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions. Understanding and mastering the kinetics of oxygen electrocatalysis is instrumental to making use of photosynthesis, advancing solar fuels, fuel cells, electrolyzers, and metal–air batteries. We first present key insights, assumptions and limitations of well-known activity descriptors and reaction mechanisms in the past four decades. The turnover frequency of crystalline oxides as promising catalysts is also put into perspective with amorphous oxides and photosystem II. Particular attention is paid to electronic structure parameters that can potentially govern the adsorbate binding strength and thus provide simple rationales and design principles to predict new catalyst chemistries with enhanced activity. We share new perspective synthesizing mechanism and electronic descriptors developed from both molecular orbital and solid state band structure principles. We conclude with an outlook on the opportunities in future research within this rapidly developing field.

Orientation-Dependent Oxygen Evolution Activities of Rutile IrO2 and RuO2.

The activities of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on IrO2 and RuO2 catalysts are among the highest known to date. However, the intrinsic OER activities of surfaces with defined crystallographic orientations are not well-established experimentally. Here we report that the (100) surface of IrO2 and RuO2 is more active in alkaline environments (pH 13) than the most thermodynamically stable (110) surface. The OER activity was correlated with the density of coordinatively undersaturated metal sites of each crystallographic facet. The surface-orientation-dependent activities can guide the design of nanoscale catalysts with increased activity for electrolyzers, metal-air batteries, and photoelectrochemical water splitting applications.

La0.8Sr0.2MnO3−δ Decorated with Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3−δ: A Bifunctional Surface for Oxygen Electrocatalysis with Enhanced Stability and Activity

Developing highly active and stable catalysts based on earth-abundant elements for oxygen electrocatalysis is critical to enable efficient energy storage and conversion. In this work, we took advantage of the high intrinsic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of La(0.8)Sr(0.2)MnO(3-δ) (LSMO) and the high intrinsic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of Ba(0.5)Sr(0.5)Co(0.8)Fe(0.2)O(3-δ) (BSCF) to develop a novel bifunctional catalyst. We used pulsed laser deposition to fabricate well-defined surfaces composed of BSCF on thin-film LSMO grown on (001)-oriented Nb-doped SrTiO3. These surfaces exhibit bifunctionality for oxygen electrocatalysis with enhanced activities and stability for both the ORR and OER that rival the state-of-the-art single- and multicomponent catalysts in the literature.

La0.8Sr0.2MnO3-delta Decorated with Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.3Fe0.2O3-delta: A Bifunctional Surface for Oxygen Electrocatalysis with Enhanced Stability and Activity

Developing highly active and stable catalysts based on earth-abundant elements for oxygen electrocatalysis is critical to enable efficient energy storage and conversion. In this work, we took advantage of the high intrinsic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activity of La(0.8)Sr(0.2)MnO(3-δ) (LSMO) and the high intrinsic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity of Ba(0.5)Sr(0.5)Co(0.8)Fe(0.2)O(3-δ) (BSCF) to develop a novel bifunctional catalyst. We used pulsed laser deposition to fabricate well-defined surfaces composed of BSCF on thin-film LSMO grown on (001)-oriented Nb-doped SrTiO3. These surfaces exhibit bifunctionality for oxygen electrocatalysis with enhanced activities and stability for both the ORR and OER that rival the state-of-the-art single- and multicomponent catalysts in the literature.

Activating lattice oxygen redox reactions in metal oxides to catalyse oxygen evolution

Understanding how materials that catalyse the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) function is essential for the development of efficient energy-storage technologies. The traditional understanding of the OER mechanism on metal oxides involves four concerted proton-electron transfer steps on metal-ion centres at their surface and product oxygen molecules derived from water. Here, using in situ 18O isotope labelling mass spectrometry, we provide direct experimental evidence that the O2 generated during the OER on some highly active oxides can come from lattice oxygen. The oxides capable of lattice-oxygen oxidation also exhibit pH-dependent OER activity on the reversible hydrogen electrode scale, indicating non-concerted proton-electron transfers in the OER mechanism. Based on our experimental data and density functional theory calculations, we discuss mechanisms that are fundamentally different from the conventional scheme and show that increasing the covalency of metal-oxygen bonds is critical to trigger lattice-oxygen oxidation and enable non-concerted proton-electron transfers during OER.

Oxygen electrocatalysis on (001)-oriented manganese perovskite films: Mn valency and charge transfer at the nanoscale

We report that the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) activities of (001)-oriented manganese perovskite films decrease from 10 to 1 nm by more than an order of magnitude, which can be attributed to the barrier associated with interfacial band bending that impedes electron transfer to the electrolyte, and reduction of Mn3+ due to charge transfer from the Nb:SrTiO3 substrate. Furthermore, we show by substitution in La1−x(Ca,Sr)xMnO3 that Mn3+, not Mn4+, is the active valence state for ORR.

Highly Active Epitaxial La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 Surfaces for the Oxygen Reduction Reaction: Role of Charge Transfer.

Most studies of oxide catalysts for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) use oxide powder, where the heterogeneity of exposed surfaces and the composite nature of electrodes limit fundamental understanding of the reaction mechanism. We present the ORR activity of epitaxially oriented La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 surfaces and investigate, by varying Sr substitution, the relationship between the role of charge transfer and catalytic activity in an alkaline environment. The activity is greatest for La(1-x)Sr(x)MnO3 with 33% Sr, containing mixed Mn(3+/4+), and the (110) and (111) orientations display comparable activities to that of the (001). Electrochemical measurements using the facile redox couple [Fe(CN)6](3-/4-) illustrate that increasing ORR activity trends with faster charge-transfer kinetics, indicating the importance of facile charge transfer at the oxide/water interface and mixed Mn valence in promoting ORR kinetics.

Role of Strain and Conductivity in Oxygen Electrocatalysis on LaCoO3 Thin Films.

The slow kinetics of the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR, OER) hinder energy conversion and storage in alkaline fuel cells and electrolyzers employing abundant transition metal oxide catalysts. Systematic studies linking material properties to catalytic activity are lacking, in part due to the heterogeneous nature of powder-based electrodes. We demonstrate, for the first time, that epitaxial strain can tune the activity of oxygen electrocatalysis in alkaline solutions, focusing on the model chemistry of LaCoO3, where moderate tensile strain can further induce changes in the electronic structure leading to increased activity. The resultant decrease in charge transfer resistance to the electrolyte reduces the overpotential in the ORR more notably than the OER and suggests a different dependence of the respective rate-limiting steps on electron transfer. This provides new insight into the reaction mechanism applicable to a range of perovskite chemistries, key to the rational design of highly active catalysts.

Nanoscale structural oscillations in perovskite oxides induced by oxygen evolution

Understanding the interaction between water and oxides is critical for many technological applications, including energy storage, surface wetting/self-cleaning, photocatalysis and sensors. Here, we report observations of strong structural oscillations of Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ (BSCF) in the presence of both H2O vapour and electron irradiation using environmental transmission electron microscopy. These oscillations are related to the formation and collapse of gaseous bubbles. Electron energy-loss spectroscopy provides direct evidence of O2 formation in these bubbles due to the incorporation of H2O into BSCF. SrCoO3-δ was found to exhibit small oscillations, while none were observed for La0.5Sr0.5CoO3-δ and LaCoO3. The structural oscillations of BSCF can be attributed to the fact that its oxygen 2p-band centre is close to the Fermi level, which leads to a low energy penalty for oxygen vacancy formation, high ion mobility, and high water uptake. This work provides surprising insights into the interaction between water and oxides under electron-beam irradiation.

Thickness-Dependent Photoelectrochemical Water Splitting on Ultrathin LaFeO3 Films Grown on Nb:SrTiO3

The performance of photoelectrodes can be modified by changing the material chemistry, geometry, and interface engineering. Specifically, nanoscale active layers can facilitate the collection of charge carriers. In heterostructure devices, the multiple material interfaces are particularly important, which at present are not well understood for oxides. Here, we report a detailed study of ultrathin (2-25 nm) LaFeO3 films grown epitaxially on Nb-doped SrTiO3. The films exhibit thickness-dependence with sensitivity to less than 10 nm in both the through-plane charge transfer conductivity and in the potential-dependent photoresponse. Supplementing photoelectrochemical measurements with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, spectroscopic ellipsometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, we construct a band model that accounts for this thickness dependence via a shifting valence-band offset at the film-substrate interface and the potential-dependent overlap of the depletion regions present at both the film-substrate and film-electrolyte interfaces. These results illustrate the utility of using active layer thickness and film-substrate interactions to tune the performance of photoelectrodes, providing insight for the design of efficient heterostructure oxide photoelectrochemical devices.