scholarly journals Insight into Composition and Intermediate Evolutions of Copper-Based Catalysts during Gas-Phase CO2 Electroreduction to Multicarbon Oxygenates

Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1502
Author(s):  
Guihua Li ◽  
Yonghui Zhao ◽  
Jerry Pui Ho Li ◽  
Wei Chen ◽  
Shoujie Li ◽  
...  

Conversion of CO2 to valuable chemicals driven by renewable electricity via electrocatalytic reduction processes is of great significance for achieving carbon neutrality. Copper-based materials distinguish themselves from other electrocatalysts for their unique capability to produce multicarbon compounds in CO2 electroreduction. However, the intrinsic active composition and C–C coupling mechanism of copper-based catalysts are still ambiguous. This is largely due to the absence of appropriate in situ approaches to monitor the complicated processes of CO2 electroreduction. Here, we adopted operando spectroscopy techniques, including Raman and infrared, to investigate the evolution of compositions and intermediates during gas-phase CO2 electroreduction on Cu foam, Cu2O nanowire and CuO nanowire catalysts. Although all the three copper-based catalysts possessed the activity of electroreducing gas-phase CO2 to multicarbon oxygenates, Cu2O nanowires showed the much superior performance with a 71.9% Faradaic efficiency of acetaldehyde. Operando Raman spectra manifested that the cuprous oxide remained stable during the whole gas-phase CO2 electroreduction, and operando diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy (DRFITS) results provide direct evidences of key intermediates and their evolutions for producing multicarbon oxygenates, in consistence with the density functional theory calculations.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruichao Pang ◽  
Pengfei Tian ◽  
Hongliang Jiang ◽  
Minghui Zhu ◽  
Xiaozhi Su ◽  
...  

Abstract Unveiling the structural evolution and working mechanism of catalysts under realistic operating conditions is crucial for the design of efficient electrocatalysts for CO2 electroreduction, yet remains highly challenging. Here, by virtue of operando structural measurements at multiscale levels, it is identified under CO2 electroreduction conditions that an as-prepared CeO2/BiOCl precatalyst gradually evolves into CeOx/Bi interface structure with enriched Ce3+ species, which serves as the real catalytically active phase. The derived CeOx/Bi interface structure compared to pure Bi counterpart delivers substantially enhanced performance with a formate Faradaic efficiency approaching 90% for 24 hours in a wide potential window. The formate Faradaic efficiency can be further increased by using isotope D2O instead of H2O. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the regenerative CeOx/Bi interfacial sites can not only promote water activation to increase local *H species for CO2 protonation appropriately, but also stabilize the key intermediate *OCHO in formate pathway.


Computation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Anastasia A. Shakirova ◽  
Felix N. Tomilin ◽  
Vladimir A. Pomogaev ◽  
Natalia G. Vnukova ◽  
Grigory N. Churilov ◽  
...  

Gd endohedral complexes of C82 fullerenols were synthesized and mass spectrometry analysis of their composition was carried out. It was established that the synthesis yields a series of fullerenols Gd@C82Ox(OH)y (x = 0, 3; y = 8, 16, 24, 36, 44). The atomic and electronic structure and properties of the synthesized fullerenols were investigated using the density functional theory calculations. It was shown that the presence of endohedral gadolinium increases the reactivity of fullerenols. It is proposed that the high-spin endohedral fullerenols are promising candidates for application in magnetic resonance imaging.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zoi Salta ◽  
Agnie M. Kosmas ◽  
Oscar Ventura ◽  
Vincenzo Barone

<p>The dehalogenation of 2-chloroethanol (2ClEtOH) in gas phase with and without participation of catalytic water molecules has been investigated using methods rooted into the density functional theory. The well-known HCl elimination leading to vinyl alcohol (VA) was compared to the alternative elimination route towards oxirane and shown to be kinetically and thermodynamically more favorable. However, the isomerization of VA to acetaldehyde in the gas phase, in the absence of water, was shown to be kinetically and thermodynamically less favorable than the recombination of VA and HCl to form the isomeric 1-chloroethanol (1ClEtOH) species. This species is more stable than 2ClEtOH by about 6 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>, and the reaction barrier is 22 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup> vs 55 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup> for the direct transformation of VA to acetaldehyde. In a successive step, 1ClEtOH can decompose directly to acetaldehyde and HCl with a lower barrier (29 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>) than that of VA to the same products (55 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>). The calculations were repeated using a single ancillary water molecule (W) in the complexes 2ClEtOH_W and 1ClEtOH_W. The latter adduct is now more stable than 2ClEtOH_W by about 8 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>, implying that the water molecule increased the already higher stability of 1ClEtOH in the gas phase. However, this catalytic water molecule lowers dramatically the barrier for the interconversion of VA to acetaldehyde (from 55 to 6 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>). This barrier is now smaller than the one for the conversion to 1ClEtOH (which also decreases, but not so much, from 22 to 12 kcal mol<sup>-1</sup>). Thus, it is concluded that while 1ClEtOH may be a plausible intermediate in the gas phase dehalogenation of 2ClEtOH, it is unlikely that it plays a major role in water complexes (or, by inference, aqueous solution). It is also shown that neither in the gas phase nor in the cluster with one water molecule, the oxirane path is competitive with the VA alcohol path.</p>


Author(s):  
Xuxin Kang ◽  
Wei Xu ◽  
Xiangmei Duan

Abstract Rechargeable batteries with superior electronic conductivity, large capacity, low diffusion barriers and moderate open circuit voltage have attracted amount attention. Due to abundant resources and safety, as well as the high voltage and energy density, potassium ion batteries (KIBs) could be an ideal alternative to next−generation of rechargeable batteries. Based on the density functional theory calculations, we find that the SnS2 monolayer expands greatly during the potassiumization, which limits its practical application. The construction of graphene/SnS2/graphene (G/SnS2/G) heterojunction effectively prevents SnS2 sheet from deformation, and enhances the electronic conductivity. Moreover, the G/SnS2/G has not only a high theoretical special capacity of 680 mAh/g, but an ultra−low K diffusion barrier (0.08 eV) and an average open circuit voltage (0.22 V). Our results predict that the G/SnS2/G heterostructure could be used as a promising anode material for KIBs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiuyan Jin ◽  
Jiaye Li ◽  
Alireza Ariafard ◽  
Allan J Canty ◽  
Richard AJ O’Hair

Gas-phase ion trap mass spectrometry experiments and density functional theory calculations have been used to examine the routes to the formation of the 1,8-naphthyridine (napy) ligated geminally dimetallated phenyl complexes [(napy)Cu2(Ph)]+, [(napy)Ag2(Ph)]+ and [(napy)CuAg(Ph)]+ via extrusion of CO2 or SO2 under collision-induced dissociation conditions from their corresponding precursor complexes [(napy)Cu2(O2CPh)]+, [(napy)Ag2(O2CPh)]+, [(napy)CuAg(O2CPh)]+ and [(napy)Cu2(O2SPh)]+, [(napy)Ag2(O2SPh)]+, [(napy)CuAg(O2SPh)]+. Desulfination was found to be more facile than decarboxylation. Density functional theory calculations reveal that extrusion proceeds via two transition states: TS1 enables isomerization of the O, O-bridged benzoate to its O-bound form; TS2 involves extrusion of CO2 or SO2 with the concomitant formation of the organometallic cation and has the highest barrier. Of all the organometallic cations, only [(napy)Cu2(Ph)]+ reacts with water via hydrolysis to give [(napy)Cu2(OH)]+, consistent with density functional theory calculations which show that hydrolysis proceeds via the initial formation of the adduct [(napy)Cu2(Ph)(H2O)]+ which then proceeds via TS3 in which the coordinated H2O is deprotonated by the coordinated phenyl anion to give the product complex [(napy)Cu2(OH)(C6H6)]+, which then loses benzene.


Crystals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 430
Author(s):  
Lukas Kyvala ◽  
Maxim Tchaplianka ◽  
Alexander Shick ◽  
Sergii Khmelevskyi ◽  
Dominik Legut

We theoretically investigate the electronic and magnetic structure of Fe 2 Hf. The density functional theory calculations are shown to produce the negative, easy-plane, magnetic anisotropy in the hexagonal Fe 2 Hf. Antimony substitution suppresses the planar magnetization direction and favors the uniaxial magnetic anisotropy, in agreement with experimental observations. Our study suggests the possibility of the chemical control of the magnetic anisotropy in Fe 2 Hf by Sb substitution, and illustrates the potential of (Fe,Sb) 2 + x Hf 1 − x Laves phase alloys for the permanent magnet applications.


Author(s):  
M. Mirnezhad ◽  
R. Ansari ◽  
H. Rouhi ◽  
M. Faghihnasiri

The application of graphene as a nanosensor in measuring strain through its band structure around the Fermi level is investigated in this paper. The mechanical properties of graphene as well as its electronic structure are determined by using the density functional theory calculations within the framework of generalized gradient approximation. In the case of electronic properties, the simulations are applied for symmetrical and asymmetrical strain distributions in elastic range; also the tight-binding approach is implemented to verify the results. It is indicated that the energy band gap does not change with the symmetrical strain distribution but depend on the asymmetric strain distribution, increasing strain leads to band gap opening around the Fermi level.


Author(s):  
Asiyeh Shahraki ◽  
Ali Ebrahimi ◽  
Shiva Rezazadeh ◽  
Roya Behazin

The impact of ion-π interactions on the photophysical properties of quinizarin have been investigated using the density functional theory and time-dependent density functional theory at the M06-2X/6-311++G(d,p) level in the gas phase and solution.


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