10.

626 Electrochemical Energy Systems Spring 2014

Lecture 19: Electrocatalysis

Notes by MIT Student (and MZB)

1 The Concept of Electrocatalysis

In chemistry, the concept of a catalyst is defined as a substance that can alter the velocity of a certain chem-
ical reaction without any chemical change. This definition can be directly extrapolated for electrocatalysis.
An electrocatalyst is an electrode material that interacts with some certain species during a Faradaic reac-
tion but still remain unaltered. Since electrode reactions are heterogeneous, so electrocatalysts are usually
heterogeneous catalysts, which means that the reactions take place on the surfaces of catalysts, and there
exist adsoprtion/desoprtion steps on the surfaces of electrocatalysts.
In order to compare the catalytic activity of different electrode materials, one can compare the current
density at a constant overpotential, or measure the overpotential at a constant current density. A good
electrocatalyst should show high current density at low overpotential.

2 Sabatier Principle

Sabatier Principle (named after French chemist Paul Sabatier) is a qualitative way to predict the activity
of heterogeneous catalysts. The principle states that in order to have high catalytic activity, the interaction
between reactants and catalysts should neither be too strong nor too weak. If the interaction is too weak,
then there will be no reaction on the surface because it is difficult for catalyst surface to bind the reactants. If
the interaction is too strong, then the reaction reactant or product is difficult to get desorbed from catalyst
surface, which also lowers the activity. This principle also applies to electrocatalysis, basically “some”
adsorption is favored, but not too much. Sabatier principle usually gives rise to so-called volcano plot, such
as an example shown in Figure 1. Volcano plots were first introduced by Balandin in 1969. The basic idea
is that if plotting rate of chemical reaction on a heterogeneous catalyst with some adsorption property, for
instance adsorption enthalpy, then according to Sabatier’s principle, the plot will have a maximum, showing
the shape like a volcano.

3 Faradaic Reaction with a Surface Adsorption Step

Now let us consider a Faradaic reaction on the surface of an electrocatalyst, which means the charge transfer
step follows a surface adsorption step and can be expressed as below:

Adsorption step: O −→ Os
Charge transfer step: Os + ne− −→ R

In which O is the oxidized state, Os represents the surface adsorbed oxidized state, and R represents the
reduced state. Let aO , as , aR be the activities of O, Os and R, respectively, then the chemical potentials of

1
2 Lecture 19: Electrocatalysis

Figure 1: An example of volcano plot, showing the rate of decomposition of formic acid on transition metal surfaces.
The y axis is the temperature needed to have a certain decomposition rate. The x axis is the formation enthalpy of
metal formate salt. (Research shows the reaction intermediate involves metal formate salt, so the formation enthalpy
is an indicator of the ease of formic acid surface adsorption.) Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabatier principle/

each species can be expressed as below: (To simplify, assume that the charges of O and Os equal to zero
(i.e. ZO = Zs = 0) and R has the charge of ZR .)

µO = kB T ln aO + µ−
◦
O (1)
µs = kB T ln as + µ−
◦
s (2)
µR = kB T ln aR + µ−
◦
R + ZR ϕ (3)

If we assume that the adsorption step is fast and the charge transfer step is the rate-limiting step, then the
chemical potential of oxidized state O should equal to the chemical potential of adsorbed oxidized state Os ,
i.e.:

µO = µs (4)
kB T ln aO + µ−
◦
O = kB T ln as + µ−
◦
s (5)

Let Kads be the equilibrium constant of the adsorption reaction, then we have:

as = Kads aO (6)
µ−
◦
O − µ−
◦
s ∆Hads
Kads = exp( ) = exp( ) (7)
kB T kB T
In which ∆Hads = µ− ◦ −
◦
O − µs is the enthalpy change of the adsorption reaction. If we apply the lattice gas
model for the electrocatalyst surface, then by the assumption of the lattice gas model, we have: (Θ is the
surface coverage ratio of Os .)
Θ
as = = Kads aO (8)
1−Θ
Then we can get the surface coverage of Os at the equilibrium state Θeq :

Kads aO
Θeq = (9)
1 + Kads aO
Lecture 19: Electrocatalysis 3

Equation 9 is called Langmuir isotherm (or Langmuir adsorption equation).

For the rate-limiting step, namely the charge transfer on the surface of the electrocatalyst surface, we assume

the reaction kinetics follow the Butler-Volmer equation, which yields:

−αneη −(1 − α)neη

I = I0 (exp( ) − exp( )) (10)
kB T kB T
η is the overpotential with the expression η = ∆ϕ − ∆ϕeq (as , aR ). The exchange current I0 in the Butler-
Volmer equation can be expressed as a function of concentration of reaction species and activation coefficient
of the transition state γT S :
neν
I0 = ( )(as ane )1−α aα
R (11)
γT S
Then we need to find the expression for γT S . Firstly, if we again apply the lattice gas model to the adsorbed
oxidized species, then we have:
µs = kB T ln as + µ−
◦ −
◦
s = kB T ln Θ − kB T ln(1 − Θ) + µs (12)
Compare Equation 12 to the expression µs = kB T ln(cγ ˜ s ) + µ−
◦ −
◦
s = kB T ln(Θγs ) + µs , we have the expression
for the activation coefficient of Os :
1
γs = (13)
1−Θ
Based on this observation, if we assume that the transition state excludes s sites, then γT S can be expressed
as: (the origin for s > 1 could be due to the solvation shell.)
1
γT S = ( )s (14)
1−Θ
For simplicity, we assume s = 1, also let ae = aR = 1, then the expression for the exchange current becomes:
k 1−α
I0 = a
γT S s
Θ 1−α
= k(1 − Θ)( ) (15)
1−Θ
(Kads aO )1−α
=k
1 + Kads aO
(k = neν is a pre-factor. We also have Θ = Θeq since we assume the surface adsorption step is fast.)

Finally, let’s use Equation 15 to investigate the relationship between reaction rate and surface adsorption
equilibrium constant. We know that the current density represents the velocity of the reaction. If we fix
the overpotential η, then the total current is proportional to the exchange current, namely I ∝ I0 . Then we
only need to study the relationship between I0 and Kads . If we plot ln I0 ∼ ln Kads , we get a curve with
the familiar volcano shape, just as the Sabatier’s principle predicts (Figure 2). Also, the effect of symmetry
factor α is shown in Figure 3. As α deviates 1/2, the peak position of the volcano plot shifts and also the
shape is not symmetric any more.

Notice that:
∆Hads
Kads = exp( ) (16)
kB T
∆Hads
ln Kads = (17)
kB T
Therefore,the x axis of these volcano plots is actually proportional to the enthalpy change of adsorption
Kads , which again, highlights the Sabatier’s principle, i.e. the adsorption should neither be too strong nor
too weak to maximize the electrocatalytic activity.
4 Lecture 19: Electrocatalysis

Figure 2: Volcano plots generated from Equation 15. The plot of ln I0 ∼

� ln Kads has a maximum, the slopes on the
left and right of the maximum are − C and 1 − C, respectively.
l n ( I0 )

-10 10
0

lnKads
Figure 3: The effect of symmetry factor C on the shape of volcano plots.
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10.626 Electrochemical Energy Systems

Spring 2014

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