(90h) Carbide-Based Electrocatalysts in Alkaline Electrolyte

Carbide-based
electrocatalysts in alkaline electrolyte

Jingguang G. Chen, Department of Chemical
Engineering, Columbia University

Transition
metal carbides (TMC) and metal-modified TMCs are potentially low-cost materials
to replace Pt-group metal electrocatalysts.  TMC-based electrocatalysts
have been fairly extensively studied in acid electrolyte.  However, a fundamental understanding of the
activity and stability of these catalysts in alkaline electrolyte remains
relatively unexplored.  In the current
talk we will discuss our recent experimental and theoretical studies of the
stability window of these catalysts over a wide range of pH and voltage
values.  We will then use the hydrogen
evolution reaction (HER) to demonstrate whether the hydrogen binding energy or
hydroxyl binding energy is the appropriate HER descriptor for TMC-based electrocatalysts in alkaline.  Finally, we will demonstrate potential
advantages of metal-modified TMCs for the electrooxidation
of ethanol by controlling the binding strength of surface reaction
intermediates in alkaline.