Deciphering electrocatalysts with multimodal operando approaches

Journal Article · Fri Apr 18 00:00:00 EDT 2025 · Nature Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-025-02224-8· OSTI ID:2568099

Li, Meng ^[1]; House, Stephen D. ^[2]; Yang, Judith C. ^[3]

---

1. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN)
2. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies
3. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN); Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA (United States)

Here, the electrocatalytic processes of a copper catalyst during nitrate electroreduction are unveiled by correlated operando microscopy and spectroscopy. Catalysts are vital to the modern chemical industry, yet their development has largely relied on trial-and-error approaches. Optimizing catalysts requires a fundamental understanding of their structure–chemical property behaviour under operational conditions. However, operando characterization remains challenging, especially for reactions occurring in the complex and dynamic liquid environments of electrochemical systems. Over the past decade, the rapid development of in situ and operando environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) and microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based closed-cell holders, enabling environmental studies within the vacuum environment of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), has substantively advanced understanding of heterogeneous catalysis, notably for gas-phase reactions. In situ ETEM enables the direct observation of the catalyst evolution in terms of structure, morphology and chemical state at the nano-to-atomic scale, providing insights into their correlation with catalytic performance.

• Research Organization: Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities (SUF)
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012704
• OSTI ID: 2568099
• Report Number(s): BNL--228174-2025-JAAM
• Journal Information: Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 24; ISSN 1476-4660; ISSN 1476-1122
• Publisher: Springer Nature
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE