Davidson School of Chemical Engineering Professor Jeffrey Greeley and his research team at Purdue University have recently published a paper in the journal Nature Energy. The paper, "Stabilization of Ultrathin (Hydroxy)oxide Films on Transition Metal Substrates for Electrochemical Energy Conversion," focuses on Greeley's research of atomic-level features of ultrathin (hydroxy)oxide films on metal substrates and demonstrates that these films exhibit both excellent stability and activity for electrocatalytic applications. 

Members of Greeley’s research team include Zhenhua Zeng and Joseph Kubal in Chemical Engineering at Purdue, and Kee-Chul Chang and Nenad Markovic in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory. The researchers are part of the Purdue Catalysis Center.

The group found that (hydroxy)oxide films on transition metal substrates adopt structures with stabilities which significantly exceed bulk Pourbaix limits, including stoichiometries not found in bulk and properties that are tunable by controlling voltage, film composition, and substrate identity. Using nickel (hydroxy)oxide/Pt(111) as an example, Greeley’s team shows how the films enhance activity for hydrogen evolution through a bifunctional effect. The results suggest design principles for a new class of electrocatalysts with simultaneously enhanced stability and activity for energy conversion.

Read the entire article on the Nature Energy website at https://www.nature.com/articles/nenergy201770

Learn more about Dr. Jeffrey Greeley’s research at https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/people/ptProfile?resource_id=84163.

Learn more about the Purdue Catalysis Center at https://engineering.purdue.edu/~catalyst/index.html.