JoVE Science Education
Analytical Chemistry
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JoVE Science Education Analytical Chemistry
Electrochemical Measurements of Supported Catalysts Using a Potentiostat/Galvanostat
  • 00:00Visão Geral
  • 01:09Principles of Voltammetry
  • 04:36Working Electrode Preparation
  • 05:51Electrochemical Cell Preparation
  • 06:53Electrochemical Analysis
  • 08:38Applications
  • 10:17Summary

负载型催化剂,用恒电位仪/结合电化学测量

English

COMPARTILHAR

Visão Geral

资料来源: 实验室的博士尤里 · 罗曼 — — 麻省理工学院

恒电位仪/结合 (通常称作简单恒电位仪) 是一种手段,目前应用的潜力 (恒电位操作) 的措施或措施潜在应用目前 (恒电流操作) (图 1)。它是最常用的仪器,在燃料电池、 电解槽、 电池和超级电容器阳极和阴极材料的电化学性能。

传统上,这些阳极和阴极材料被接口与恒电位仪通过三电极电化学电池。从恒电位仪的电极引线连接到参比电极、 电极 (通常称为辅助电极) 和工作电极 (其中包含感兴趣的测试材料)。电化学电池那么充满高离子强度的电解质溶液中,如酸性、 碱性、 或盐的溶液。媒体为此高离子强度溶液是通常水溶液;然而,应用程序需要更高的经营细胞潜在的窗口,如电池和超级电容器,经常使用非水介质。单元格媒体被脱气用惰性气体 (以防止有害的副作用) 或用测试气体 (如果测试反应涉及到在其中一个电极的气体)。

或者,盐桥或膜用来维持离子接触,如果这两个半细胞是将被测量在不同电解液中。在多相催化,这种类型的”两舱”的单元格常用如果在工作电极测试分子也是在对电极无功。这经常发生,通常采用对电极是白金,是许多反应的高活性催化剂。在这里,将使用单个隔层细胞,在同一介质中所有三个电极在哪里。

这个视频会解释抛光工作电极、 制备催化剂油墨,安装上的工作电极催化剂油墨、 制备电化学电池,然后进行电化学测量的过程。执行的测量包括: 循环伏安法 (CV)、 线性扫描伏安法 (LSV)、 计时电位法 (CP) 和计时 (CA)。

Figure 1
图 1。单室电化学电池示例。a.) 铁氟龙帽、 b)玻璃的单元格 c)。铂丝电极,d。)工作电极、 e)Ag/AgCl 参比电极、 f.)0.5 M 水硫酸电解质溶液。

Princípios

Procedimento

1.催化剂油墨和工作电极的制备 安全防范措施:支持在炭黑上的金属必须处理油烟罩或平衡盘柜中,直到它是悬架形式这些粉末吸入危害。 使用封闭的平衡,权衡出 5-10 毫克的金属,碳黑催化剂并添加到与盖的玻璃瓶。 利用微管吸吮,稀释的催化剂,以水,这样最终浓度是 7.5 毫克每毫升水的催化剂。 而 sonicating,100 μ L 的 Nafion 117 解决?…

Resultados

This procedure will result in figures containing plots of measured current vs. potential for each of the four techniques. By convention for CV and LSV, the plots will also be outputted as measured current vs. potential despite the reality that these are transient techniques that measure current vs. the time derivative of potential.

Applications and Summary

CV, LSV, CP, and CA are indispensable techniques for determining the efficacy of new electrode materials for fuel cells, electrolyzers, batteries, and supercapacitors as well as for developing fields such as the selective partial oxidation or reduction of commodity chemicals. These methods allow for determining overpotentials of reactions on different electrode materials as compared to their thermodynamic equilibrium potentials. These methods also allow the volumetric or gravimetric capacitance of supercapacitors to be determined. Similarly, rates of charging/discharging of battery electrodes or supercapacitors can be determined with these techniques. These techniques also allow for the characterization of the electrochemical stability of the materials to be determined. Beyond these basic techniques, more advanced techniques include the combination of potentiometric techniques with in-situ methods such as IR and mass spectrometry.

Transcrição

A potentiostat-galvanostat is the most commonly used instrument in electrochemical characterization, and is used to understand the effect of electrical changes on a chemical reaction.

A potentiostat-galvanostat is an instrument used in electrochemical systems. It measures current at an applied potential in potentiostat mode, or vice versa in galvanostat mode. For simplicity, the instrument is commonly called a potentiostat.

Oxidation-reduction, or redox, reactions occur at an electrode surface and involve the transfer of electrons. In particular, the loss of electrons in a chemical species is the case of oxidation, or the gain of electrons in the case of reduction. This redox event can be induced by an applied potential, E, also called voltage.

This video will demonstrate the set up and performance of electrochemical tests using a potentiostat.

In most cases, redox events are coupled to a potentiostat via a three-electrode cell. The three-electrode cell consists of a working electrode, counter or auxiliary electrode, and reference electrode. The working electrode is where the reaction of interest occurs, and the counter electrode is used to complete the electrical circuit.

An applied potential is measured against the reference electrode, which contains a redox system with a known, stable electrode potential, E. Common reference electrodes are the saturated calomel electrode, and the reversible hydrogen electrode, which are used for calibration purposes. The Ag/AgCl electrode is commonly used in electrochemical tests, and is interfaced with the electrolyte solution via a porous frit.

The electrochemical cell is filled with a high ionic strength electrolyte solution, such as an acidic, alkaline, or salt solution. The electrolyte solution prevents charge buildup at the electrodes.

In an electrochemical experiment, potential, current, time, and charge can all be manipulated or measured by the potentiostat. When the working electrode is acting as the cathode, electrons flow from the counter electrode to the working electrode. Positively charged ions, or cations, flow to the cathode. The reverse is true when the working electrode is acting as the anode. Negatively charged ions, or anions, flow to the anode.

By selecting the manipulated and measured parameters, a number of measurement techniques are possible. Chronoamperometry is a technique where a potential step is applied to the working electrode, and the resulting current change is measured as a function of time. When a potential step is large enough to cause an electrochemical reaction at the working electrode, the current changes. This technique can be used for many applications, such as the determination of diffusion coefficients in reaction kinetics.

Similarly, chronopotentiometry is a technique where a constant or varied current is applied, and the potential is measured as a function of time. The applied current causes electroactive species to be oxidized or reduced at a certain rate. This technique is used for a range of applications, such as the determination of reaction progress.

Voltammetry measures anodic and cathodic current with respect to an applied potential sweep. This measurement examines the addition or removal of electrons from a chemical species during the increase or decrease of potential at a constant rate. Cyclic voltammetry, or CV, is covered in depth separately in another video in this collection.

Now that the basics of voltammetry have been covered, the preparation of a three-electrode cell and a working electrode with a surface bound catalyst will be demonstrated in the laboratory. In this demonstration, catalyst ink will be prepared and measured, which consists of platinum nanoparticles in a carbon black support, with a Nafion binding agent. This system is representative of current fuel cell and battery research.

To begin, weigh 7.5 mg of metal/carbon black catalyst in a fume hood, and add it to a glass vial. Dilute the catalyst with 1 mL of water and add 100 μL of Nafion 117, then cap the vial.

Sonicate the mixture on ice for at least 10 min to ensure uniform dispersion and complete mixing of the carbon black support with the Nafion. While the ink is sonicating, prepare the working electrode, which is a 3-mm glassy carbon disk.

Clean and polish the electrode by gently rubbing it in a swirling, circular motion on a soft pad covered with 0.05 μm colloidal alumina solution. After polishing, rinse the electrode copiously with deionized water to remove the alumina.

Next, 7 mL of ink is dripped onto the polished, vertically oriented glassy carbon electrode. Dry the working electrode under vacuum at room temperature. Then dry it at 80 °C for one hr if the catalyst nanoparticles are air stable. 

First, fill the glass electrochemical cell with 10 mL of the electrolyte. Cap the electrochemical cell with a Teflon cap with openings for the three electrodes. De-gas the electrolyte for at least 30 min with ultra high purity nitrogen gas in order to remove redox-active oxygen. Allow the nitrogen to bubble lightly throughout the experiment.

Remove the Ag/AgCl reference electrode from its 3 M NaCl storage solution. Rinse the electrode thoroughly with deionized water, and place it into the electrochemical cell.

Next, rinse the platinum wire counter electrode and the dried working electrode with deionized water, and insert them into the cell. Ensure that the electrodes do not touch. Turn on the potentiostat, and connect the leads to the reference and counter electrodes.

Perform at least 20 conditioning cycles by running cyclic voltammetry scans between the upper and lower potential limits at 50 mV per second. This step ensures that the electrode surfaces are fully hydrated.

Linear sweep voltammetry, or LSV, can be performed by specifying the initial and final potentials, and the scan rate. The scan rate for LSV is typically less than that for CV. The result is a plot of potential vs. current with oxidation or reduction events visualized as peaks in the scan. In this case, the perchlorate in the electrolyte was reduced on the catalyst surface in the cathodic scan.

To perform chronoamperometry, select it as the technique, then specify the fixed potential as well as the time. The result is a plot of current vs. time. The initial decay is due to capacitive discharging, while the steady state portion is essentially a straight line. Chronoamperometry is potentiostatic and thus after the initial asymptotic decay of the capacitative effects, the current attributed to surface reactions can be isolated.

Finally, chronopotentiometry is performed in a series of current steps, where one current is specified for a certain length of time. Each time the current switches from zero to the working current, there is an initial asymptotic change in potential, followed by a steady state. After each on/off cycle, the stable catalyst material requires the same over-potential to drive the specified current.

Electrochemical measurements with a potentiostat are widely used in analysis and fabrication.

Electrochemistry is used to analyze the binding of probe molecules to electrodes. In this example, electrodes were patterned within microfluidic channels, and functionalized with single stranded DNA. When the DNA was hybridized with the complimentary strand, the redox couple was blocked at the electrode surface. 

DNA hybridization was then measured by connecting the electrodes to the potentiostat using three probe electrodes.

Impedance measurements, a measure of the resistance to current flow, showed that increasing complimentary DNA concentration resulted in increased impedance, and therefore increased hybridization.

Next, electrochemical processes were used to monitor and characterize the growth of biofilms on an electrode. For this, a three-electrode cell was assembled, with the electrolyte being the cell broth.

The growth of the biofilm was monitored using chronoamperometry, in order to achieve an exact measurement and reproducible culture conditions.

Electrochemical techniques can also be used in the fabrication of thin films and layers on an electrode surface. Electrical signals trigger localized environments at the electrode surface, which can induce the self-assembly of materials.

In this example, the deposition of biomaterials was performed using electrodeposition. Chitosan, a biopolysaccharide, undergoes a sol-gel transition at the electrode surface, creating a film.

You’ve just watched JoVE’s introduction to potentiometry. You should now understand how to set up a typical three-electrode cell, and perform basic electrochemical tests.

Thanks for watching!

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JoVE Science Education Database. JoVE Science Education. Electrochemical Measurements of Supported Catalysts Using a Potentiostat/Galvanostat. JoVE, Cambridge, MA, (2023).