Green Chemistry Catalysts

For a better connection to industrial or technology applications, Surface Science is required to overcome the “pressure” and the "material" gap, that is, to adapt to ambient or liquid conditions, at which one can properly simulate industrial processes and devices “in-operando”. In the last few years the most powerful Surface Science techniques have evolved towards this direction. The Surface Electrochemistry group of the Nanophysics Lab has initiated a research line to explore basic problems of electrocatalysis and on crystal surfaces, combining standard ultra-high-vacuum characterization,  Near-Ambient Pressure Photoemission (NAP-XPS) experiments, and Electrochemical cell.

Our customized experimental set-up enables structural, chemical and electrochemical characterization on exactly the same sample, by allowing the transfer of the catalyst from ultra-high vacuum (UHV) –compatible with surface science techniques- to an electrochemical cell in a controlled argon gas atmosphere. This optimized approach enables the direct correlation between the surface composition (X-Ray photoemission spectroscopy, XPS) and structure (Low energy electron diffraction, LEED, and Scanning tunneling microscopy, STM) at the atomic scale, and the macroscopic response of the catalyst (Cyclic Voltammetry, CV, Linear Sweep Voltammetry, LSV, and Chronoamperometry, CA.).

Main responsibles: ENRIQUE ORTEGA & SARA BARJA & FREDERIK SCHILLER

Relevant research topics

Developing new materials with improved catalytic properties is one of the most critical challenges facing the sustainable production of clean and renewable energy sources.We explore basic problems of electrocatalysis of fuel cell reactions, while focusing on metal-oxide and 2D materials for electrocatalysts for the O2 evolution reaction (OER), electrochemical reduction of CO2 and hydrogen evolution reactions (HER). 
We also investigate gas phase catalytic reactions, such as CO oxidation or CO2 dissociation, using curved crystals as samples. These are cylindrical sections of single crystals, whose curved surface exhibits a smooth variation of the crystal orientation that can be selectively probed with standard techniques, such as ambient-pressure photoemission. This makes the curved surface a model platform to probe active step and kink sites during catalytic reactions.
Key Publications
  • "Identifying substitutional oxygen as a prolific point defect in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides",Sara Barja, Sivan Refaely-Abramson, Bruno Schuler, Diana Y. Qiu, Artem Pulkin, Sebastian Wickenburg, Hyejin Ryu, Miguel M. Ugeda, Christoph Kastl, Christopher Chen, Choongyu Hwang, Adam Schwartzberg, Shaul Aloni, Sung-Kwan Mo, D. Frank Ogletree, Michael F. Crommie, Oleg V. Yazyev, Steven G. Louie, Jeffrey B. Neaton & Alexander Weber-Bargioni. Nature Communications 10, 3382 (2019)
  • " Reduced Carbon Monoxide Saturation Coverage on Vicinal Palladium Surfaces: the Importance of the Adsorption Site” Fernando Garcia-Martinez, Elisabeth Dietze, Frederik Schiller, Dorotea Gajdek, Lindsay R. Merte, Sabrina M. Gericke, Johan Zetterberg, Stefano Albertin, Edvin Lundgren, Henrik Grönbeck, and J. Enrique Ortega J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 12, 9508–9515 (2021)
  • More information

    celia.rogero@csic.es

    +34 943015804

    Paseo Manuel de Lardizábal 5

    20018, Donostia, Spain