Development of manganese oxide based catalysts for the oxygen reduction and oxygen evolution reactions

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
Development of active catalytic materials for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR, O2 + 4H+ + 4e- → 2H2O) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER, 2H2O → O2 + 4H+ + 4e-) is one of the major challenges in energy conversion and storage technologies such as fuel cells, metal-air batteries, electrolysis cells, and solar fuel synthesis. The majority of industrially relevant active materials are precious metals and metal oxides, whose high cost and scarcity limits the widespread adoption of these important technologies. Manganese oxides (MnOx) catalysts are an interesting alternative to the precious metal based electrodes under alkaline conditions due to their abundance, low cost, and a demonstrated ability to catalyze both the ORR and the OER at high pH values. To accelerate the development of MnOx catalysts with improved activities for the ORR and the OER, it is important to increase understanding of the surface properties at the ORR and the OER relevant potentials. Spectroscopy techniques, including x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), are among the possible methods to monitor surface chemistry of catalytic materials. Both XPS and XAS can offer information on the electronic structure of the surface, while XAS can also probe the short-range order of the catalysts. This dissertation focuses on development of MnOx catalysts for the ORR and the OER and uses ex-situ XPS, ex-situ Mn L-edge XAS, and in-situ Mn K-edge XAS to correlate measured catalytic activity to the surface oxidation state of Mn.

Description

Type of resource text
Form electronic; electronic resource; remote
Extent 1 online resource.
Publication date 2012
Issuance monographic
Language English

Creators/Contributors

Associated with Gorlin, Yelena
Associated with Stanford University, Department of Chemical Engineering
Primary advisor Jaramillo, Thomas Francisco
Thesis advisor Jaramillo, Thomas Francisco
Thesis advisor Bent, Stacey
Thesis advisor Fasching, Rainer J
Advisor Bent, Stacey
Advisor Fasching, Rainer J

Subjects

Genre Theses

Bibliographic information

Statement of responsibility Yelena Gorlin.
Note Submitted to the Department of Chemical Engineering.
Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2012
Location electronic resource

Access conditions

Copyright
© 2012 by Yelena Gorlin
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).

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