Establishing Structure-Activity Correlations in Oxygen Electrocatalysis

Oxygen electrochemistry plays an essential role in many important electrochemical devices for energy conversion and storage, such as fuel cells, batteries, and electrolyzers. However, the efficiency of these devices is limited due to the sluggish kinetics associated with oxygen electrocatalysis, which prompted intense research efforts in developing efficient catalysts for oxygen electrochemistry. A grand challenge in catalyst development is to establish structure/composition—activity correlations that not only explain existing catalytic activity trends but also have predictive powers to enable rational catalyst design. In this talk, two types of oxygen electrocatalysts will be discussed (1) metal (oxy)hydroxides for the oxygen evolution reaction and (2) transition metal phthalocyanines for the oxygen reduction reaction. I will show how electron and vibrational spectroscopy can provide critical information leading to establishing structure-activity correlations, especially when implemented in situ and operando. Particularly, these analytical techniques have been instrumental in identifying the active structure motifs and the catalyst degradation mechanism for oxygen electrocatalysts.