Iron oxide surfaces

Designing high-performance and cost-effective electrocatalysts toward oxygen evolution and hydrogen evolution reactions in water-alkali electrolyzers is pivotal for large-scale and sustainable hydrogen production. Earth-abundant transition metal oxide-based catalysts are particularly active for oxygen evolution reaction; however, they are generally considered inactive toward hydrogen evolution reaction. Here, we show that strain engineering of the outermost surface of cobalt(II) oxide nanorods can turn them into efficient electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction. They are competitive with the best electrocatalysts for this reaction in alkaline media so far. Our theoretical and experimental results demonstrate that the tensile strain strongly couples the atomic, electronic structure properties and the activity of the cobalt(II) oxide surface, which results in the creation of a large quantity of oxygen vacancies that facilitate water dissociation, and fine tunes the electronic structure to weaken hydrogen adsorption toward the optimum region.

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Activating cobalt(II) oxide nanorods for efficient electrocatalysis by strain engineering

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02024384/document

Materials for supercapacitors: When Li-ion battery power is not enough

In this review, we discuss new developments and recent trends in both amorphous and crystalline Al2O3 oxide nanofluids related to their phase dependent characteristics in detail. Nowadays, nanofluids have gained significant attention with the enhanced energy/heat efficiency, which is highly desirable to improve the performance of any energy based devices and technology. This review article systematically describes the various chemical synthesis routes followed by bottom-up approaches, surface morphologies, and detailed microstructure characteristics, and phase dependent thermal as well as optical properties for potential use of such materials in various applications.

Phase dependent thermal and spectroscopic responses of Al2O3 nanostructures with different morphogenesis.

We studied Pt–Co bimetallic nanoparticles during oxidation in O2 and reduction in H2 atmospheres using an aberration corrected environmental transmission electron microscope. During oxidation Co migrates to the nanoparticle surface forming a strained epitaxial CoO film. It subsequently forms islands via strain relaxation. The atomic restructuring is captured as a function of time. During reduction cobalt migrates back to the bulk, leaving a monolayer of platinum on the surface.

Revealing the atomic restructuring of Pt-Co nanoparticles.

Size effects and geometry can significantly modify the properties of nanoparticles with direct impact on their biocompatibility and chemical reactivity. Using high-resolution electron microscopy it is now shown that strain gradients induced in the oxide shell of cuboid Fe nanoparticles can lead to oxide domain formation and shape evolution of the particles.

Enhanced oxidation of nanoparticles through strain-mediated ionic transport

SMILE, the Solar wind Magnetosphere Ionosphere Link Explorer, is a joint science mission between the European Space Agency and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The spacecraft will be uniquely equipped to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere-ionosphere system and the solar wind on a global scale. SMILE's instruments will explore this science through imaging of the solar wind charge exchange soft X-ray emission from the dayside magnetosheath, simultaneous imaging of the UV northern aurora and in-situ monitoring of the solar wind and magnetosheath plasma and magnetic field conditions. The Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) is the instrument being designed to observe X-ray photons emitted by the solar wind charge exchange process at photon energies between 200 eV and 2000 eV . X-rays will be collected using a focal plane array of two custom-designed CCDs, each consisting of 18 μm square pixels in a 4510 by 4510 array. SMILE will be placed in a highly elliptical polar orbit, passing in and out of the Earth's radiation belts every 48 hours. Radiation damage accumulated in the CCDs during the mission's nominal 3-year lifetime will degrade their performance (such as through decreases in charge transfer efficiency), negatively impacting the instrument's ability to detect low energy X-rays incident on the regions of the CCD image area furthest from the detector outputs. The design of the SMILE-SXI CCDs is presented here, including features and operating methods for mitigating the effects of radiation damage and expected end of life CCD performance. Measurements with a PLATO device that has not been designed for soft X-ray signal levels indicate a temperature-dependent transfer efficiency performance varying between 5×10−5 and 9×10−4 at expected End of Life for 5.9 keV photons, giving an initial set of measurements from which to extrapolate the performance of the SXI CCDs.

/pdf/the-smile-soft-x-ray-imager-sxi-ccd-design-and-development-3yyp48mmql.pdf

The SMILE Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) CCD design and development

Metastable de-excitation spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy study of the2×4and2×7reconstructions of Ho on Si(001)

Teledyne e2v continues to develop sensors for ground-based and space applications. These are back-thinned for high QE, exhibit low noise, and other high performance specifications. Large sets of such CCDs have been supplied for space missions-including GAIA & EUCLID, with the ESA PLATO program underway. We also highlight a new 2k2k CMOS space imager. Other examples of CMOS sensors for space missions will be shown.High red sensitivity remains important and CCD and CMOS sensors are presented with enhanced red wavelength quantum efficiency. An exciting new capability for back-biased CMOS imagers with significantly enhanced red-sensitivity is presented.It is now possible to supply CMOS sensors with comparable performance to CCDs. Performance information and the final design will be shown for two CMOS sensors-a 2k4k imager and an 800X800 wave-front sensor. Both are back-thinned and have very low readout noise. Finally, we present information on a sub-electron noise CMOS sensor.

Teledyne e2v sensors optimised for ground-based and space applications

The extremely surface sensitive technique of metastable de-excitation spectroscopy (MDS) has been utilized to probe the bonding and reactivity of crotyl alcohol over Pd(111) and provide insight into the selective oxidation pathway to crotonaldehyde. Auger de-excitation (AD) of metastable He (23S) atoms reveals distinct features associated with the molecular orbitals of the adsorbed alcohol, corresponding to emission from the hydrocarbon skeleton, the O n nonbonding, and C═C π states. The O n and C═C π states of the alcohol are reversed when compared to those of the aldehyde. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the alcohol show that an adsorption mode with both C═C and O bonds aligned somewhat parallel to the surface is energetically favored at a substrate temperature below 200 K. Density of states calculations for such configurations are in excellent agreement with experimental MDS measurements. MDS revealed oxidative dehydrogenation of crotyl alcohol to crotonaldehyde between 200 and 250 K, resulting in small peak shifts to higher binding energy. Intramolecular changes lead to the opposite assignment of the first two MOs in the alcohol versus the aldehyde, in accordance with DFT and UPS studies of the free molecules. Subsequent crotonaldehyde decarbonylation and associated propylidyne formation above 260 K could also be identified by MDS and complementary theoretical calculations as the origin of deactivation and selectivity loss. Combining MDS and DFT in this way represents a novel approach to elucidating surface catalyzed reaction pathways associated with a “real-world” practical chemical transformation, namely the selective oxidation of alcohols to aldehydes.

Charles Woffinden

Papers

Enhanced oxidation of nanoparticles through strain-mediated ionic transport

The SMILE Soft X-ray Imager (SXI) CCD design and development

Metastable de-excitation spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy study of the2×4and2×7reconstructions of Ho on Si(001)

Teledyne e2v sensors optimised for ground-based and space applications

Metastable De-excitation Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Study of the Selective Oxidation of Crotyl Alcohol over Pd(111)