Research Area - Electrocatalysis
This research area investigates fundamental electrochemical reactions on model electrodes in order to gain insight into the relation between the electrode structure and its activity. From the understanding of mechanisms of reaction approaches for an improvement of the activity, efficiency and the stability of electrochemical processes can be deduced.
Experiment
....will follow shortly
Theory
Experimental and theoretical studies of electrocatalytic reactions can identify reaction mechanisms, intermediates and the kinetics of elementary reactions. The combination of theory and experiment provides detailed insights into electrocatalytic processes and can be used to improve or even develop new electrocatalysts.
Using our multi-scale approach that combines quantum-mechanical methods with forcefield and meso-scale (e.g. kMC) approaches, we investigate the fundamental steps of electrocatalytic reactions, including the HER/HOR, OER/ORR as well as the formic acid oxidation and CO2 reduction.
To allow for a tight connection with experiments we usually concentrate on model systems, such as single-crystal surfaces, and afterward extend our studies to process-relevant catalysts (e.g. nanoparticles or structured catalysts.