Manganese-based Oxides as Stable Water and Methanol Electrochemical Oxidation Catalysts for Hydrogen Production

• Grant number: 24/08046-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Physical-Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Fabio Henrique Barros de Lima
• Grantee: Cássio Luis Pires Lucato
• Supervisor: Olaf Brummel
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química de São Carlos (IQSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/00908-9 - Stability and activity of manganese oxide electrocatalysts stabilized by organic ligands for water oxidation, BP.DD

Abstract

Manganese-based oxides have emerged as promising catalysts for electrooxidation reactions, such as water and organic molecules oxidation for green hydrogen generation. Due to their redox properties, especially in higheroxidation states (Mn(IV) or even Mn(VII)), exhibit excellent catalytic activity foroxidation. Additionally, manganese oxides present unique stability in acid electrolytes.However, their stability is limited to a short potential window, and this hinders theirapplication in practical devices. Manganese Antimonates have exhibited improvedstability, which allows them to reach higher current density for electrochemicaloxidation of water and/or organic fuels, such as methanol and formic acid. Nevertheless,the fundamental understanding of the mechanism of water or methanol on manganese-based oxides is missing, this being crucial for the development of more efficient,sustainable, and cost-competitive electrolyzers. Therefore, the objective of this project is tostudy the mechanism or reaction pathway of methanol, and formic acid electrooxidation on puremanganese oxide and manganese antimonate in acidic electrolyte employing in situinfrared spectroscopy.