Nanocrystalline oxides for selective anodic electrocatalysis

Abstract:
The proposed project focuses on a systematic study of the factors
affecting activity and selectivity of the nanocrystalline oxide
electrodes in anodic electrocatalytic processes namely in oxygen and
chlorine evolution in acid media. Nanocrystalline oxides witn rutile
structure derived from RuO2 and IrO2 will be prepared by sol-gel,
solvothermal and Pechini processes. Prepared materials will be
characterized by diffraction techniques, electron microscopy and X-ray
absorption (EXAFS/XANES) and photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy. The
actual electrocatalytic activity in oxygen and chlorine evolution will
be studied by a combination of conventional potentiodynamic techniques
with i)differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy (DEMS) and ii)
X-ray absortion spectroscopy (EXAFS/XANES). The obtained data will be
used to rationalize the selectivity of the surface towards competing
anodic processes as well as to describe the structure of the active
sites for corresponding reactions.