In-situ Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study for Oxygen Evolution Reaction on carbon-supported Pt-Co binary alloy nanoparticles

Zong-Ren Yang^1*, Chueh-Cheng Yang¹, Chia-Hsin Wang¹

¹Nano Science Group, National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan

* Presenter:Zong-Ren Yang, email:rickyan31@msn.com

Getting clean, highly effective, and high stability energy generation has attracted the most attention in recent research. The oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a crucial role in electrochemical energy devices. Realizing the primary reaction mechanism of OER can provide us with more information to design high-performance electrocatalysts in the future. In this work, we report the real-time investigation of OER on the carbon-supported platinum-cobalt alloy nanoparticles (Pt-Co/C ANPs) by using ambient pressure X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (APXPS) at TLS BL24A. As a first step, the sample was spin-coated on the proton exchange membrane with conductive carbon black coating, which was enhanced the conductive of the working electrode (WE) for the electrochemical measurement. At open-circuit voltage (OPV), the Pt is a metallic type. Upon changing the applying potential to 2.2 V (using Ag/AgCl as reference electrode), the Pt with +2 formal valence state was observed. The oxygen signal was also detected by online mass spectrometry. When the applying potential was increased from 2.2 V to 2.4 V, the Pt (2+) species and oxygen production rate were both increased. In the future, we will determine the XPS Co 2p spectra to realize the fundamental mechanism of OER of Pt-Co/C ANPs. The more detailed results will be reported in this presentation.

Keywords: OER, APXPS, Nanoparticle Electrocatalyst