Synthesizing Well-Defined Pre-Catalysts for Multi-Modal Studies of Electrocatalysts under Reaction Conditions

Chemical conversion through renewable energy-powered electrocatalysis is a crucial technology in our green energy strategy. However, we still lack the fundamental understanding of working catalytic structures under reaction conditions needed to enable the rational design of optimal catalysts for such applications. Even though <i>operando </i>studies can be used to investigate catalysts during reaction, no single <i>operando</i> technique provides complete information about an electrocatalyst under reaction conditions because the relevant catalytic processes span several orders of magnitude in length and time scales. Hence, multiple techniques are usually needed for such studies. Ensuring that we are looking at catalysts under self-consistent reaction conditions in the different tools is not easy. The starting point towards addressing this challenge is the ability to make the samples in a controllable and reproducible manner. In this talk, I will discuss my group’s work using different methods to synthesize model pre-catalysts with well-controlled characteristics for <i>operando</i> microscopy studies. Using such transferable synthesis protocols, we further bridge the gap between various techniques with targeted measurements that correlate the structure and the properties of catalysts during reaction.