Erin E. Perry

Bio: Erin E. Perry is an academic researcher from University of California, Santa Barbara. The author has contributed to research in topics: Charge carrier & Doping. The author has an hindex of 10, co-authored 13 publications receiving 2849 citations. Previous affiliations of Erin E. Perry include Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Synthesis and Activities of Rutile IrO2 and RuO2 Nanoparticles for Oxygen Evolution in Acid and Alkaline Solutions

Abstract: The activities of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) on iridium-oxide- and ruthenium-oxide-based catalysts are among the highest known to date. However, the OER activities of thermodynamically stable rutile iridium oxide (r-IrO2) and rutile iridium oxide (r-RuO2), normalized to catalyst mass or true surface area are not well-defined. Here we report a synthesis of r-IrO2 and r-RuO2 nanoparticles (NPs) of ∼6 nm, and examine their OER activities in acid and alkaline solutions. Both r-IrO2 and r-RuO2 NPs were highly active for OER, with r-RuO2 exhibiting up to 10 A/goxide at 1.48 V versus reversible hydrogen electrode. When comparing the two, r-RuO2 NPs were found to have slightly higher intrinsic and mass OER activities than r-IrO2 in both acid and basic solutions. Interestingly, these oxide NPs showed higher stability under OER conditions than commercial Ru/C and Ir/C catalysts. Our study shows that these r-RuO2 and r-IrO2 NPs can serve as a benchmark in the development of active OER catalysts for electrol...

Power Factor Enhancement in Solution‐Processed Organic n‐Type Thermoelectrics Through Molecular Design

Abstract: A new class of high-performance n-type organic thermoelectric materials, self-doping perylene diimide derivatives with modified side chains, is reported. These materials achieve the highest n-type thermoelectric performance of solution-processed organic materials reported to date, with power factors as high as 1.4 μW/mK(2). These results demonstrate that molecular design is a promising strategy for enhancing organic thermoelectric performance.

Electronic structure and photovoltaic application of BiI3

Abstract: Rapid recent improvement in photovoltaic efficiency in hybrid lead halide perovskite materials has provided the impetus for understanding other, related main-group halide systems. Here, we show that the closely related but less toxic bismuth iodide BiI3 can show promising optoelectronic properties. Layered binary BiI3 is used here as the active layer in planar solar cell architectures (efficiency approximately 0.3%). Experimental and computational studies of absolute band positions of BiI3 are also presented, to help in the rational design of device architectures that would allow efficient charge transfer at the interfaces.

The Influence of the Cation on the Oxygen Reduction and Evolution Activities of Oxide Surfaces in Alkaline Electrolyte

Abstract: Understanding the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) mechanisms is critical to the design of future electrocatalysts for fuel cells, electrolyzers, and metal–air batteries. As parts of the effort to elucidate the reaction mechanisms, we report the influence of the cationic species on the ORR/OER activity of select transition metal oxide catalysts in alkaline solutions. Specifically, we use Li+, Na+, and K+-containing electrolytes to assess the role of the cation on the ORR activity of Pt nanoparticles and LaMnO3+δ, as well as the OER activity of rutile IrO2 and Ba0.5Sr0.5Co0.8Fe0.2O3-δ. We found that all these benchmark electrocatalysts share the same cation trends, where the presence of the smaller cation (Li+) always leads to lower activity. We argue that this finding represents the possible cation influence on the ORR/OER intermediate stabilization.

Temperature-Dependent Polarization in Field-Effect Transport and Photovoltaic Measurements of Methylammonium Lead Iodide

Abstract: While recent improvements in the reported peak power conversion efficiency (PCE) of hybrid organic–inorganic perovskite solar cells have been truly astonishing, there are many fundamental questions about the electronic behavior of these materials. Here we have studied a set of electronic devices employing methylammonium lead iodide ((MA)PbI3) as the active material and conducted a series of temperature-dependent measurements. Field-effect transistor, capacitor, and photovoltaic cell measurements all reveal behavior consistent with substantial and strongly temperature-dependent polarization susceptibility in (MA)PbI3 at temporal and spatial scales that significantly impact functional behavior. The relative PCE of (MA)PbI3 photovoltaic cells is observed to reduce drastically with decreasing temperature, suggesting that such polarization effects could be a prerequisite for high-performance device operation.

Combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis: Insights into materials design

Abstract: BACKGROUND With a rising global population, increasing energy demands, and impending climate change, major concerns have been raised over the security of our energy future. Developing sustainable, fossil-free pathways to produce fuels and chemicals of global importance could play a major role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions while providing the feedstocks needed to make the products we use on a daily basis. One prospective goal is to develop electrochemical conversion processes that can convert molecules in the atmosphere (e.g., water, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen) into higher-value products (e.g., hydrogen, hydrocarbons, oxygenates, and ammonia) by coupling to renewable energy. Electrocatalysts play a key role in these energy conversion technologies because they increase the rate, efficiency, and selectivity of the chemical transformations involved. Today’s electrocatalysts, however, are inadequate. The grand challenge is to develop advanced electrocatalysts with the enhanced performance needed to enable widespread penetration of clean energy technologies. ADVANCES Over the past decade, substantial progress has been made in understanding several key electrochemical transformations, particularly those that involve water, hydrogen, and oxygen. The combination of theoretical and experimental studies working in concert has proven to be a successful strategy in this respect, yielding a framework to understand catalytic trends that can ultimately provide rational guidance toward the development of improved catalysts. Catalyst design strategies that aim to increase the number of active sites and/or increase the intrinsic activity of each active site have been successfully developed. The field of hydrogen evolution, for example, has seen important breakthroughs over the years in the development of highly active non–precious metal catalysts in acid. Notable advancements have also been made in the design of oxygen reduction and evolution catalysts, although there remains substantial room for improvement. The combination of theory and experiment elucidates the remaining challenges in developing further improved catalysts, often involving scaling relations among reactive intermediates. This understanding serves as an initial platform to design strategies to circumvent technical obstacles, opening up opportunities and approaches to develop higher-performance electrocatalysts for a wide range of reactions. OUTLOOK A systematic framework of combining theory and experiment in electrocatalysis helps to uncover broader governing principles that can be used to understand a wide variety of electrochemical transformations. These principles can be applied to other emerging and promising clean energy reactions, including hydrogen peroxide production, carbon dioxide reduction, and nitrogen reduction, among others. Although current paradigms for catalyst development have been helpful to date, a number of challenges need to be successfully addressed in order to achieve major breakthroughs. One important frontier, for example, is the development of both experimental and computational methods that can rapidly elucidate reaction mechanisms on broad classes of materials and in a wide range of operating conditions (e.g., pH, solvent, electrolyte). Such efforts would build on current frameworks for understanding catalysis to provide the deeper insights needed to fine-tune catalyst properties in an optimal manner. The long-term goal is to continue improving the activity and selectivity of these catalysts in order to realize the prospects of using renewable energy to provide the fuels and chemicals that we need for a sustainable energy future.

Electrocatalysis for the oxygen evolution reaction: recent development and future perspectives

Abstract: There is still an ongoing effort to search for sustainable, clean and highly efficient energy generation to satisfy the energy needs of modern society. Among various advanced technologies, electrocatalysis for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) plays a key role and numerous new electrocatalysts have been developed to improve the efficiency of gas evolution. Along the way, enormous effort has been devoted to finding high-performance electrocatalysts, which has also stimulated the invention of new techniques to investigate the properties of materials or the fundamental mechanism of the OER. This accumulated knowledge not only establishes the foundation of the mechanism of the OER, but also points out the important criteria for a good electrocatalyst based on a variety of studies. Even though it may be difficult to include all cases, the aim of this review is to inspect the current progress and offer a comprehensive insight toward the OER. This review begins with examining the theoretical principles of electrode kinetics and some measurement criteria for achieving a fair evaluation among the catalysts. The second part of this review acquaints some materials for performing OER activity, in which the metal oxide materials build the basis of OER mechanism while non-oxide materials exhibit greatly promising performance toward overall water-splitting. Attention of this review is also paid to in situ approaches to electrocatalytic behavior during OER, and this information is crucial and can provide efficient strategies to design perfect electrocatalysts for OER. Finally, the OER mechanism from the perspective of both recent experimental and theoretical investigations is discussed, as well as probable strategies for improving OER performance with regards to future developments.

Design of electrocatalysts for oxygen- and hydrogen-involving energy conversion reactions

Abstract: A fundamental change has been achieved in understanding surface electrochemistry due to the profound knowledge of the nature of electrocatalytic processes accumulated over the past several decades and to the recent technological advances in spectroscopy and high resolution imaging. Nowadays one can preferably design electrocatalysts based on the deep theoretical knowledge of electronic structures, via computer-guided engineering of the surface and (electro)chemical properties of materials, followed by the synthesis of practical materials with high performance for specific reactions. This review provides insights into both theoretical and experimental electrochemistry toward a better understanding of a series of key clean energy conversion reactions including oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), oxygen evolution reaction (OER), and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The emphasis of this review is on the origin of the electrocatalytic activity of nanostructured catalysts toward the aforementioned reactions by correlating the apparent electrode performance with their intrinsic electrochemical properties. Also, a rational design of electrocatalysts is proposed starting from the most fundamental aspects of the electronic structure engineering to a more practical level of nanotechnological fabrication.

An Advanced Ni–Fe Layered Double Hydroxide Electrocatalyst for Water Oxidation

Abstract: Highly active, durable, and cost-effective electrocatalysts for water oxidation to evolve oxygen gas hold a key to a range of renewable energy solutions, including water-splitting and rechargeable metal–air batteries. Here, we report the synthesis of ultrathin nickel–iron layered double hydroxide (NiFe-LDH) nanoplates on mildly oxidized multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Incorporation of Fe into the nickel hydroxide induced the formation of NiFe-LDH. The crystalline NiFe-LDH phase in nanoplate form is found to be highly active for oxygen evolution reaction in alkaline solutions. For NiFe-LDH grown on a network of CNTs, the resulting NiFe-LDH/CNT complex exhibits higher electrocatalytic activity and stability for oxygen evolution than commercial precious metal Ir catalysts.

Recent Progress in Cobalt‐Based Heterogeneous Catalysts for Electrochemical Water Splitting

Abstract: Water electrolysis is considered as the most promising technology for hydrogen production. Much research has been devoted to developing efficient electrocatalysts for hydrogen production via the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and oxygen production via the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). The optimum electrocatalysts can drive down the energy costs needed for water splitting via lowering the overpotential. A number of cobalt (Co)-based materials have been developed over past years as non-noble-metal heterogeneous electrocatalysts for HER and OER. Recent progress in this field is summarized here, especially highlighting several important bifunctional catalysts. Various approaches to improve or optimize the electrocatalysts are introduced. Finally, the current existing challenges and the future working directions for enhancing the performance of Co-implicated electrocatalysts are proposed.