In situ Raman spectroscopy reveals the structure and dissociation of interfacial water

Yao-Hui Wang, Shisheng Zheng, Wei-Min Yang, Ru-Yu Zhou, Quan-Feng He, Petar Radjenovic, Jin-Chao Dong, Shunning Li, Jiaxin Zheng, Zhi-Lin Yang, Gary Attard, Feng Pan (), Zhong-Qun Tian and Jian-Feng Li ()
Additional contact information
Yao-Hui Wang: Xiamen University
Shisheng Zheng: Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School
Wei-Min Yang: Xiamen University
Ru-Yu Zhou: Xiamen University
Quan-Feng He: Xiamen University
Petar Radjenovic: Xiamen University
Jin-Chao Dong: Xiamen University
Shunning Li: Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School
Jiaxin Zheng: Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School
Zhi-Lin Yang: Xiamen University
Gary Attard: University of Liverpool
Feng Pan: Peking University, Shenzhen Graduate School
Zhong-Qun Tian: Xiamen University
Jian-Feng Li: Xiamen University

Nature, 2021, vol. 600, issue 7887, 81-85

Abstract: Abstract Understanding the structure and dynamic process of water at the solid–liquid interface is an extremely important topic in surface science, energy science and catalysis1–3. As model catalysts, atomically flat single-crystal electrodes exhibit well-defined surface and electric field properties, and therefore may be used to elucidate the relationship between structure and electrocatalytic activity at the atomic level4,5. Hence, studying interfacial water behaviour on single-crystal surfaces provides a framework for understanding electrocatalysis6,7. However, interfacial water is notoriously difficult to probe owing to interference from bulk water and the complexity of interfacial environments8. Here, we use electrochemical, in situ Raman spectroscopic and computational techniques to investigate the interfacial water on atomically flat Pd single-crystal surfaces. Direct spectral evidence reveals that interfacial water consists of hydrogen-bonded and hydrated Na+ ion water. At hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) potentials, dynamic changes in the structure of interfacial water were observed from a random distribution to an ordered structure due to bias potential and Na+ ion cooperation. Structurally ordered interfacial water facilitated high-efficiency electron transfer across the interface, resulting in higher HER rates. The electrolytes and electrode surface effects on interfacial water were also probed and found to affect water structure. Therefore, through local cation tuning strategies, we anticipate that these results may be generalized to enable ordered interfacial water to improve electrocatalytic reaction rates.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04068-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nature:v:600:y:2021:i:7887:d:10.1038_s41586-021-04068-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/

DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04068-z

Access Statistics for this article

Nature is currently edited by Magdalena Skipper

More articles in Nature from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().