Mechanistic Study of Bifunctional Electrocatalysts for Rechargeable Metal Air Batteries: Electrocatalyst Investigation by Structural and Electrochemical Analysis

University of Kentucky (UK) research team will collaborate with Sandia National Lab (SNL) to investigate high entropy oxide alloy (HEA) catalysts and metal sulfoselenides (MSSe) for electrochemical oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and/or the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). HEA and MSSe electrocatalysts will be prepared by SNL and transported to UK. This collaboration aims to gain in-depth knowledge about (i) catalyst surface reconstruction of HEA and MSSe during pre-conditioning and electrocatalysis, (ii) the nature of active sites in HEA and MSSe and (iii) the mechanistic pathway of OER. For this, the priorities of UK team will be to perform in situ and ex situ characterizations, including (i) operando confocal Raman spectroscopy, (ii) in situ UV-ViS absorption spectroscopy, (iii) ex situ XPS analysis before and after electrolysis, and (iv) differential electrochemical mass spectrometry (DEMS) with isotope labeling.