scholarly journals Three-Phase Heterojunction NiMo-Based Nano-Needle for Water Splitting at Industrial Alkaline Condition

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guangfu Qian ◽  
Jinli Chen ◽  
Tianqi Yu ◽  
Jiacheng Liu ◽  
Lin Luo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Splitting ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Intrinsic Activity ◽  
Alkaline Condition ◽  
Rate Determining Step ◽  
Three Phase

AbstractConstructing heterojunction is an effective strategy to develop high-performance non-precious-metal-based catalysts for electrochemical water splitting (WS). Herein, we design and prepare an N-doped-carbon-encapsulated Ni/MoO2 nano-needle with three-phase heterojunction (Ni/MoO2@CN) for accelerating the WS under industrial alkaline condition. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the electrons are redistributed at the three-phase heterojunction interface, which optimizes the adsorption energy of H- and O-containing intermediates to obtain the best ΔGH* for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and decrease the ΔG value of rate-determining step for oxygen evolution reaction (OER), thus enhancing the HER/OER catalytic activity. Electrochemical results confirm that Ni/MoO2@CN exhibits good activity for HER (ƞ-10 = 33 mV, ƞ-1000 = 267 mV) and OER (ƞ10 = 250 mV, ƞ1000 = 420 mV). It shows a low potential of 1.86 V at 1000 mA cm−2 for WS in 6.0 M KOH solution at 60 °C and can steadily operate for 330 h. This good HER/OER performance can be attributed to the three-phase heterojunction with high intrinsic activity and the self-supporting nano-needle with more active sites, faster mass diffusion, and bubbles release. This work provides a unique idea for designing high efficiency catalytic materials for WS.

scholarly journals Mechanism of selective benzene hydroxylation catalyzed by iron-containing zeolites

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (48) ◽  
pp. 12124-12129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin E. R. Snyder ◽  
Max L. Bols ◽  
Hannah M. Rhoda ◽  
Pieter Vanelderen ◽  
Lars H. Böttger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Activity ◽  
Active Site ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Catalyst Deactivation ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Oxidation Catalysis ◽  
Spectroscopic Techniques ◽  
Benzene Hydroxylation

A direct, catalytic conversion of benzene to phenol would have wide-reaching economic impacts. Fe zeolites exhibit a remarkable combination of high activity and selectivity in this conversion, leading to their past implementation at the pilot plant level. There were, however, issues related to catalyst deactivation for this process. Mechanistic insight could resolve these issues, and also provide a blueprint for achieving high performance in selective oxidation catalysis. Recently, we demonstrated that the active site of selective hydrocarbon oxidation in Fe zeolites, named α-O, is an unusually reactive Fe(IV)=O species. Here, we apply advanced spectroscopic techniques to determine that the reaction of this Fe(IV)=O intermediate with benzene in fact regenerates the reduced Fe(II) active site, enabling catalytic turnover. At the same time, a small fraction of Fe(III)-phenolate poisoned active sites form, defining a mechanism for catalyst deactivation. Density-functional theory calculations provide further insight into the experimentally defined mechanism. The extreme reactivity of α-O significantly tunes down (eliminates) the rate-limiting barrier for aromatic hydroxylation, leading to a diffusion-limited reaction coordinate. This favors hydroxylation of the rapidly diffusing benzene substrate over the slowly diffusing (but more reactive) oxygenated product, thereby enhancing selectivity. This defines a mechanism to simultaneously attain high activity (conversion) and selectivity, enabling the efficient oxidative upgrading of inert hydrocarbon substrates.

scholarly journals Altering the rate-determining step over cobalt single clusters leading to highly efficient ammonia synthesis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sisi Liu ◽  
Mengfan Wang ◽  
Haoqing Ji ◽  
Xiaowei Shen ◽  
Chenglin Yan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Active Sites ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Ammonia Synthesis ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Ambient Conditions ◽  
Property A ◽  
Strong Electron ◽  
Faradaic Efficiency ◽  
Rate Determining Step

Abstract Activation of high-energy triple-bonds of N2 is the most significant bottleneck of ammonia synthesis under ambient conditions. Here, by importing cobalt single clusters as strong electron-donating promoter into the catalyst, the rate-determining step of ammonia synthesis is altered to the subsequent proton addition so that the barrier of N2 dissociation can be successfully overcome. As revealed by density functional theory calculations, the N2 dissociation becomes exothermic over the cobalt single cluster upon the strong electron backdonation from metal to the N2 antibonding orbitals. The energy barrier of the positively shifted rate-determining step is also greatly reduced. At the same time, advanced sampling molecular dynamics simulations indicate a barrier-less process of the N2 approaching the active sites that greatly facilitates the mass transfer. With suitable thermodynamic and dynamic property, a high ammonia yield rate of 76.2 μg h–1 mg$^{-1 }_{\rm cat.}$ and superior Faradaic efficiency of 52.9% were simultaneously achieved.

Field Effect Modulation of Electrocatalytic Hydrogen Evolution at Back-Gated Two-Dimensional MoS2 Electrodes

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Wang ◽  
Sagar Udyavara ◽  
Matthew Neurock ◽  
C. Daniel Frisbie
Keyword(s):  
Electric Field ◽  
Hydrogen Evolution ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Electrode Materials ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Electronic Charge ◽  
Back Side ◽  
Gate Electrode ◽  
Conventional Manner

<div> <div> <div> <p> </p><div> <div> <div> <p>Electrocatalytic activity for hydrogen evolution at monolayer MoS2 electrodes can be enhanced by the application of an electric field normal to the electrode plane. The electric field is produced by a gate electrode lying underneath the MoS2 and separated from it by a dielectric. Application of a voltage to the back-side gate electrode while sweeping the MoS2 electrochemical potential in a conventional manner in 0.5 M H2SO4 results in up to a 140-mV reduction in overpotential for hydrogen evolution at current densities of 50 mA/cm2. Tafel analysis indicates that the exchange current density is correspondingly improved by a factor of 4 to 0.1 mA/cm2 as gate voltage is increased. Density functional theory calculations support a mechanism in which the higher hydrogen evolution activity is caused by gate-induced electronic charge on Mo metal centers adjacent the S vacancies (the active sites), leading to enhanced Mo-H bond strengths. Overall, our findings indicate that the back-gated working electrode architecture is a convenient and versatile platform for investigating the connection between tunable electronic charge at active sites and overpotential for electrocatalytic processes on ultrathin electrode materials.</p></div></div></div><br><p></p></div></div></div>

Towards a Design of Active Oxygen Evolution Catalysts: Insights from Automated Density Functional Theory Calculations and Machine Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seoin Back ◽  
Kevin Tran ◽  
Zachary Ulissi
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Oxygen Evolution ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Chemical Space ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Catalyst Design ◽  
Transition Metal Catalysts ◽  
Oxide Materials ◽  
Design Strategies

<div> <div> <div> <div><p>Developing active and stable oxygen evolution catalysts is a key to enabling various future energy technologies and the state-of-the-art catalyst is Ir-containing oxide materials. Understanding oxygen chemistry on oxide materials is significantly more complicated than studying transition metal catalysts for two reasons: the most stable surface coverage under reaction conditions is extremely important but difficult to understand without many detailed calculations, and there are many possible active sites and configurations on O* or OH* covered surfaces. We have developed an automated and high-throughput approach to solve this problem and predict OER overpotentials for arbitrary oxide surfaces. We demonstrate this for a number of previously-unstudied IrO2 and IrO3 polymorphs and their facets. We discovered that low index surfaces of IrO2 other than rutile (110) are more active than the most stable rutile (110), and we identified promising active sites of IrO2 and IrO3 that outperform rutile (110) by 0.2 V in theoretical overpotential. Based on findings from DFT calculations, we pro- vide catalyst design strategies to improve catalytic activity of Ir based catalysts and demonstrate a machine learning model capable of predicting surface coverages and site activity. This work highlights the importance of investigating unexplored chemical space to design promising catalysts.<br></p></div></div></div></div><div><div><div> </div> </div> </div>

scholarly journals Ultrafast mode-locking in highly stacked Ti3C2Tx MXenes for 1.9-μm infrared femtosecond pulsed lasers

Nanophotonics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 1741-1751
Author(s):  
Young In Jhon ◽  
Jinho Lee ◽  
Young Min Jhon ◽  
Ju Han Lee
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
2D Materials ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Mode Locking ◽  
Infrared Range ◽  
Saturable Absorption ◽  
Pulsed Lasers ◽  
Saturable Absorbers ◽  
Layer Stacking

Abstract Metallic 2D materials can be promising saturable absorbers for ultrashort pulsed laser production in the long wavelength regime. However, preparing and manipulating their 2D structures without layer stacking have been nontrivial. Using a combined experimental and theoretical approach, we demonstrate here that a metallic titanium carbide (Ti3C2Tx), the most popular MXene 2D material, can have excellent nonlinear saturable absorption properties even in a highly stacked state due to its intrinsically existing surface termination, and thus can produce mode-locked femtosecond pulsed lasers in the 1.9-μm infrared range. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the electronic and optical properties of Ti3C2Tx MXene can be well preserved against significant layer stacking. Indeed, it is experimentally shown that 1.914-μm femtosecond pulsed lasers with a duration of 897 fs are readily generated within a fiber cavity using hundreds-of-layer stacked Ti3C2Tx MXene saturable absorbers, not only being much easier to manufacture than mono- or few-layered ones, but also offering character-conserved tightly-assembled 2D materials for advanced performance. This work strongly suggests that as-obtained highly stacked Ti3C2Tx MXenes can serve as superb material platforms for versatile nanophotonic applications, paving the way toward cost-effective, high-performance photonic devices based on MXenes.

scholarly journals Study on the adsorption selection of CH$$_4$$ on CuO (110) versus (111) surfaces: a density functional theory study

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Long Lin ◽  
Linwei Yao ◽  
Shaofei Li ◽  
Zhengguang Shi ◽  
Kun Xie ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Density Functional Theory ◽  
Adsorption Capacity ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Oxygen Vacancies ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Density Functional Theory Study ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Strong Adsorption ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractFinding the active sites of suitable metal oxides is a key prerequisite for detecting CH$$_4$$ 4 . The purpose of the paper is to investigate the adsorption of CH$$_4$$ 4 on intrinsic and oxygen-vacancies CuO (111) and (110) surfaces using density functional theory calculations. The results show that CH$$_4$$ 4 has a strong adsorption energy of −0.370 to 0.391 eV at all site on the CuO (110) surface. The adsorption capacity of CH$$_4$$ 4 on CuO (111) surface is weak, ranging from −0.156 to −0.325 eV. In the surface containing oxygen vacancies, the adsorption capacity of CuO surface to CH$$_4$$ 4 is significantly stronger than that of intrinsic CuO surface. The results indicate that CuO (110) has strong adsorption and charge transfer capacity for CH$$_4$$ 4 , which may provide experimental guidance.

scholarly journals Gallium nitride catalyzed the direct hydrogenation of carbon dioxide to dimethyl ether as primary product

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Liu ◽  
Jincan Kang ◽  
Zheng-Qing Huang ◽  
Yong-Hong Song ◽  
Yong-Shan Xiao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gallium Nitride ◽  
Dimethyl Ether ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Product Distribution ◽  
Spectroscopic Studies ◽  
Direct Hydrogenation ◽  
Hydrogenation Of Co

AbstractThe selective hydrogenation of CO2 to value-added chemicals is attractive but still challenged by the high-performance catalyst. In this work, we report that gallium nitride (GaN) catalyzes the direct hydrogenation of CO2 to dimethyl ether (DME) with a CO-free selectivity of about 80%. The activity of GaN for the hydrogenation of CO2 is much higher than that for the hydrogenation of CO although the product distribution is very similar. The steady-state and transient experimental results, spectroscopic studies, and density functional theory calculations rigorously reveal that DME is produced as the primary product via the methyl and formate intermediates, which are formed over different planes of GaN with similar activation energies. This essentially differs from the traditional DME synthesis via the methanol intermediate over a hybrid catalyst. The present work offers a different catalyst capable of the direct hydrogenation of CO2 to DME and thus enriches the chemistry for CO2 transformations.

scholarly journals Rolling the WSSe Bilayer into Double-Walled Nanotube for the Enhanced Photocatalytic Water-Splitting Performance

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 705
Author(s):  
Lin Ju ◽  
Jingzhou Qin ◽  
Liran Shi ◽  
Gui Yang ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Splitting ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Transition Metal Dichalcogenides ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Stable Configuration ◽  
Photocatalytic Water Splitting ◽  
Stacking Pattern ◽  
Metal Dichalcogenides ◽  
Photocatalytic Performances ◽  
Carrier Separation

For the emerging Janus transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) layered water-splitting photocatalysts, stacking the monolayers to form bilayers has been predicted to be an effective way to improve their photocatalytic performances. To achieve this, the stacking pattern plays an important role. In this work, by means of the density functional theory calculations, we comprehensively estimate energetical stability, light absorption and redox capacity of Janus WSSe bilayer with different stacking patterns. Unfortunately, the Janus WSSe bilayer with the most stable configuration recover the out-of-plane symmetry, which is not in favor of the photocatalytic reactions. However, rolling the Janus WSSe bilayer into double-walled nanotube could stabilize the appropriate stacking pattern with an enhanced instinct dipole moment. Moreover, the suitable band edge positions, high visible light absorbance, outstanding solar-to-hydrogen efficiency (up to 28.48%), and superior carrier separation promise the Janus WSSe double-walled nanotube the potential for the photocatalytic water-splitting application. Our studies not only predict an ideal water-splitting photocatalyst, but also propose an effective way to improve the photocatalytic performances of Janus layered materials.

scholarly journals Engineering single-atomic ruthenium catalytic sites on defective nickel-iron layered double hydroxide for overall water splitting

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panlong Zhai ◽  
Mingyue Xia ◽  
Yunzhen Wu ◽  
Guanghui Zhang ◽  
Junfeng Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hydrogen Evolution ◽  
Water Splitting ◽  
Layered Double Hydroxide ◽  
Hydrogen Evolution Reaction ◽  
Active Sites ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Rational Design ◽  
Single Atom ◽  
Nickel Iron ◽  
Double Hydroxide

AbstractRational design of single atom catalyst is critical for efficient sustainable energy conversion. However, the atomic-level control of active sites is essential for electrocatalytic materials in alkaline electrolyte. Moreover, well-defined surface structures lead to in-depth understanding of catalytic mechanisms. Herein, we report a single-atomic-site ruthenium stabilized on defective nickel-iron layered double hydroxide nanosheets (Ru1/D-NiFe LDH). Under precise regulation of local coordination environments of catalytically active sites and the existence of the defects, Ru1/D-NiFe LDH delivers an ultralow overpotential of 18 mV at 10 mA cm−2 for hydrogen evolution reaction, surpassing the commercial Pt/C catalyst. Density functional theory calculations reveal that Ru1/D-NiFe LDH optimizes the adsorption energies of intermediates for hydrogen evolution reaction and promotes the O–O coupling at a Ru–O active site for oxygen evolution reaction. The Ru1/D-NiFe LDH as an ideal model reveals superior water splitting performance with potential for the development of promising water-alkali electrocatalysts.

Understanding the advantage of hexagonal WO3 as an efficient photoanode for solar water splitting: a first-principles perspective

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (29) ◽  
pp. 11498-11506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Taehun Lee ◽  
Yonghyuk Lee ◽  
Woosun Jang ◽  
Aloysius Soon
Keyword(s):  
Density Functional Theory ◽  
Band Gap ◽  
Water Splitting ◽  
Anode Material ◽  
First Principles ◽  
Density Functional ◽  
Density Functional Theory Calculations ◽  
Good Alternative ◽  
Functional Theory ◽  
Solar Water Splitting

Using first-principles density-functional theory calculations, we investigate the advantage of using h-WO3 (and its surfaces) over the larger band gap γ-WO3 phase for the anode in water splitting. We demonstrate that h-WO3 is a good alternative anode material for optimal water splitting efficiencies.

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