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Lunardon M, Kosmala T, Ghorbani-Asl M, Krasheninnikov AV, Kolekar S, Durante C, Batzill M, Agnoli S, Granozzi G. Catalytic Activity of Defect-Engineered Transition Me tal Dichalcogenides Mapped with Atomic-Scale Precision by Electrochemical Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. ACS Energy Lett 2023; 8:972-980. [PMID: 36816778 PMCID: PMC9926491 DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.2c02599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2022] [Accepted: 01/03/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Unraveling structure-activity relationships is a key objective of catalysis. Unfortunately, the intrinsic complexity and structural heterogeneity of materials stand in the way of this goal, mainly because the activity measurements are area-averaged and therefore contain information coming from different surface sites. This limitation can be surpassed by the analysis of the noise in the current of electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM). Herein, we apply this strategy to investigate the catalytic activity toward the hydrogen evolution reaction of monolayer films of MoSe2. Thanks to atomically resolved potentiodynamic experiments, we can evaluate individually the catalytic activity of the MoSe2 basal plane, selenium vacancies, and different point defects produced by the intersections of metallic twin boundaries. The activity trend deduced by EC-STM is independently confirmed by density functional theory calculations, which also indicate that, on the metallic twin boundary crossings, the hydrogen adsorption energy is almost thermoneutral. The micro- and macroscopic measurements are combined to extract the turnover frequency of different sites, obtaining for the most active ones a value of 30 s-1 at -136 mV vs RHE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Lunardon
- Department
of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
| | - Tomasz Kosmala
- Department
of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
- Institute
of Experimental Physics, University of Wrocław, Wrocław 50-204, Poland
| | - Mahdi Ghorbani-Asl
- Institute
of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Dresden 01328, Germany
| | - Arkady V. Krasheninnikov
- Institute
of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf Dresden 01328, Germany
- Department
of Applied Physics, Aalto University, 00076 Aalto, Finland
| | - Sadhu Kolekar
- Department
of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Christian Durante
- Department
of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
| | - Matthias Batzill
- Department
of Physics, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida 33620, United States
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Department
of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
- INSTM
Research
Unit, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
| | - Gaetano Granozzi
- Department
of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
- INSTM
Research
Unit, University of Padova, Padova 35131, Italy
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Kosmala T, Baby A, Lunardon M, Perilli D, Liu H, Durante C, Di Valentin C, Agnoli S, Granozzi G. Operando visualization of the hydrogen evolution reaction with atomic-scale precision at different metal–graphene interfaces. Nat Catal 2021. [DOI: 10.1038/s41929-021-00682-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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Daniel G, Mazzucato M, Brandiele R, De Lazzari L, Badocco D, Pastore P, Kosmala T, Granozzi G, Durante C. Sulfur Doping versus Hierarchical Pore Structure: The Dominating Effect on the Fe-N-C Site Density, Activity, and Selectivity in Oxygen Reduction Reaction Electrocatalysis. ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2021; 13:42693-42705. [PMID: 34468127 PMCID: PMC8447183 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c09659] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/30/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Nitrogen doping has been always regarded as one of the major factors responsible for the increased catalytic activity of Fe-N-C catalysts in the oxygen reduction reaction, and recently, sulfur has emerged as a co-doping element capable of increasing the catalytic activity even more because of electronic effects, which modify the d-band center of the Fe-N-C catalysts or because of its capability to increase the Fe-Nx site density (SD). Herein, we investigate in detail the effect of sulfur doping of carbon support on the Fe-Nx site formation and on the textural properties (micro- and mesopore surface area and volume) in the resulting Fe-N-C catalysts. The Fe-N-C catalysts were prepared from mesoporous carbon with tunable sulfur doping (0-16 wt %), which was achieved by the modulation of the relative amount of sucrose/dibenzothiophene precursors. The carbon with the highest sulfur content was also activated through steam treatment at 800 °C for different durations, which allowed us to modulate the carbon pore volume and surface area (1296-1726 m2 g-1). The resulting catalysts were tested in O2-saturated 0.5 M H2SO4 electrolyte, and the site density (SD) was determined using the NO-stripping technique. Here, we demonstrate that sulfur doping has a porogenic effect increasing the microporosity of the carbon support, and it also facilitates the nitrogen fixation on the carbon support as well as the formation of Fe-Nx sites. It was found that the Fe-N-C catalytic activity [E1/2 ranges between 0.609 and 0.731 V vs reversible hydrogen electrode (RHE)] does not directly depend on sulfur content, but rather on the microporous surface and therefore any electronic effect appears not to be determinant as confirmed by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). The graph reporting Fe-Nx SD versus sulfur content assumes a volcano-like shape, where the maximum value is obtained for a sulfur/iron ratio close to 18, i.e., a too high or too low sulfur doping has a detrimental effect on Fe-Nx formation. However, it was highlighted that the increase of Fe-Nx SD is a necessary but not sufficient condition for increasing the catalytic activity of the material, unless the textural properties are also optimized, i.e., there must be an optimized hierarchical porosity that facilitates the mass transport to the active sites.
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Kosmala T, Bardini L, Caporali M, Serrano-Ruiz M, Sedona F, Agnoli S, Peruzzini M, Granozzi G. Interfacial chemistry and electroactivity of black phosphorus decorated with transition metals. Inorg Chem Front 2021. [DOI: 10.1039/d0qi01097a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
Black phosphorus (BP) exhibits a significant chemical reactivity toward transition metals at room temperature, forming metal–BP nanohybrids that have much higher catalytic activity in the hydrogen evolution reaction with respect to the bare BP.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tomasz Kosmala
- Department of Chemical Sciences
- University of Padova
- 35131 Padova
- Italy
| | - Luca Bardini
- Department of Chemical Sciences
- University of Padova
- 35131 Padova
- Italy
| | - Maria Caporali
- Istituto di Chimica del Composti Organometallici
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR–ICCOM)
- 50019 Sesto Fiorentino
- Italy
| | - Manuel Serrano-Ruiz
- Istituto di Chimica del Composti Organometallici
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR–ICCOM)
- 50019 Sesto Fiorentino
- Italy
| | - Francesco Sedona
- Department of Chemical Sciences
- University of Padova
- 35131 Padova
- Italy
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Department of Chemical Sciences
- University of Padova
- 35131 Padova
- Italy
| | - Maurizio Peruzzini
- Istituto di Chimica del Composti Organometallici
- Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR–ICCOM)
- 50019 Sesto Fiorentino
- Italy
| | - Gaetano Granozzi
- Department of Chemical Sciences
- University of Padova
- 35131 Padova
- Italy
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Kosmala T, Blanco M, Granozzi G, Wandelt K. Porphyrin bi-layer formation induced by a surface confined reduction on an iodine-modified Au(100) electrode surface. Electrochim Acta 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2020.137026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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Mosconi D, Kosmala T, Lunardon M, Neyman A, Bar-Sadan M, Agnoli S, Granozzi G. One-pot synthesis of MoS 2(1-x)Se 2x on N-doped reduced graphene oxide: tailoring chemical and structural properties for photoenhanced hydrogen evolution reaction. Nanoscale Adv 2020; 2:4830-4840. [PMID: 36132882 PMCID: PMC9419742 DOI: 10.1039/d0na00375a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/28/2020] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
In this work we designed a one-pot solvothermal synthesis of MoS2(1-x)Se2x nanosheets directly grown on N-doped reduced graphene oxide (hereafter N-rGO). We optimized the synthesis conditions to control the Se : S ratio, with the aim of tailoring the optoelectronic properties of the resulting nanocomposites for their use as electro- and photoelectro-catalysts in the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The synthesis protocol made use of ammonium tetrathiomolybdate (ATM) as MoS2 precursor and dimethyl diselenide (DMDSe) as selenizing agent. By optimizing growth conditions and post-annealing treatments, we produced either partially amorphous or highly crystalline chalcogen-defective electrocatalysts. All samples were tested for the HER in acidic environment, and the best performing among them, for the photoassisted HER. In low crystallinity samples, the introduction of Se is not beneficial for promoting the catalytic activity, and MoS2/N-rGO was the most active electrocatalyst. On the other hand, after the post-annealing treatment and the consequent crystallization of the materials, the best HER performance was obtained for the sample with x = 0.38, which also showed the highest enhancement upon light irradiation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dario Mosconi
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova Via Marzolo 1 35131 Padova Italy
| | - Tomasz Kosmala
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova Via Marzolo 1 35131 Padova Italy
| | - Marco Lunardon
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova Via Marzolo 1 35131 Padova Italy
| | - Alevtina Neyman
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva Israel
| | - Maya Bar-Sadan
- Department of Chemistry, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beer-Sheva Israel
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova Via Marzolo 1 35131 Padova Italy
| | - Gaetano Granozzi
- Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche, Università di Padova Via Marzolo 1 35131 Padova Italy
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Kosmala T, Bibent N, Sougrati MT, Dražić G, Agnoli S, Jaouen F, Granozzi G. Stable, Active, and Methanol-Tolerant PGM-Free Surfaces in an Acidic Medium: Electron Tunneling at Play in Pt/FeNC Hybrid Catalysts for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Cathodes. ACS Catal 2020. [DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.0c01288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Tomasz Kosmala
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padua, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Nicolas Bibent
- ICGM, Univ. Montpellier, CNRS, ENSCM, Montpellier, France
| | | | - Goran Dražić
- Department of Materials Chemistry, National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, 1001 Ljubljana, Slovenia
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padua, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | | | - Gaetano Granozzi
- Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padua, Via Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
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Facchin A, Kosmala T, Gennaro A, Durante C. Electrochemical Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Investigations of FeN
4
‐Based Macrocyclic Molecules Adsorbed on Au(111) and Their Implications in the Oxygen Reduction Reaction. ChemElectroChem 2020. [DOI: 10.1002/celc.202000137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alessandro Facchin
- Department of Chemical Sciences University of Padova Via Marzolo 1 – 36026 Padova Italy
| | - Tomasz Kosmala
- Department of Chemical Sciences University of Padova Via Marzolo 1 – 36026 Padova Italy
| | - Armando Gennaro
- Department of Chemical Sciences University of Padova Via Marzolo 1 – 36026 Padova Italy
| | - Christian Durante
- Department of Chemical Sciences University of Padova Via Marzolo 1 – 36026 Padova Italy
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Kosmala T, Calvillo L, Agnoli S, Granozzi G. Enhancing the Oxygen Electroreduction Activity through Electron Tunnelling: CoOx Ultrathin Films on Pd(100). ACS Catal 2018. [DOI: 10.1021/acscatal.7b02690] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Tomasz Kosmala
- Department of Chemical Sciences
and INSTM Unit, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Laura Calvillo
- Department of Chemical Sciences
and INSTM Unit, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Stefano Agnoli
- Department of Chemical Sciences
and INSTM Unit, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
| | - Gaetano Granozzi
- Department of Chemical Sciences
and INSTM Unit, University of Padova, Via F. Marzolo 1, 35131 Padova, Italy
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Serrano G, Bonanni B, Kosmala T, Di Giovannantonio M, Diebold U, Wandelt K, Goletti C. In situ scanning tunneling microscopy study of Ca-modified rutile TiO2(110) in bulk water. Beilstein J Nanotechnol 2015; 6:438-443. [PMID: 25821684 PMCID: PMC4362475 DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.6.44] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/29/2014] [Accepted: 01/15/2015] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Despite the rising technological interest in the use of calcium-modified TiO2 surfaces in biomedical implants, the Ca/TiO2 interface has not been studied in an aqueous environment. This investigation is the first report on the use of in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to study calcium-modified rutile TiO2(110) surfaces immersed in high purity water. The TiO2 surface was prepared under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) with repeated sputtering/annealing cycles. Low energy electron diffraction (LEED) analysis shows a pattern typical for the surface segregation of calcium, which is present as an impurity on the TiO2 bulk. In situ STM images of the surface in bulk water exhibit one-dimensional rows of segregated calcium regularly aligned with the [001] crystal direction. The in situ-characterized morphology and structure of this Ca-modified TiO2 surface are discussed and compared with UHV-STM results from the literature. Prolonged immersion (two days) in the liquid leads to degradation of the overlayer, resulting in a disordered surface. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, performed after immersion in water, confirms the presence of calcium.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giulia Serrano
- Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Beatrice Bonanni
- Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Tomasz Kosmala
- Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Wegelerstraße 12, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Marco Di Giovannantonio
- Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
- Istituto di Struttura della Materia (ISM), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133 Rome, Italy
| | - Ulrike Diebold
- Institute of Applied Physics, Vienna University of Technology, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8–10/134, 1040 Vienna, Austria
| | - Klaus Wandelt
- Institut für Physikalische und Theoretische Chemie, Wegelerstraße 12, 53115 Bonn, Germany
| | - Claudio Goletti
- Department of Physics, Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”, Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
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